Silly things you did when you were younger

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I did a lot of silly / odd things as a kid.

One thing I remember doing was carefully picking apart my mom's homemade peanut butter cookies. I told her I was looking for the peanut butter when I did so, and I'm pretty sure - at least when I started the practice - that I really thought I'd magically find clumps of peanut butter. (I never did.)

I was an avid reader from a young age, and in an old set of encyclopedias we had at home I found a chart depicting the Greek alphabet. Not knowing how languages work, I viewed it as code. I'd practice writing my name as though each letter corresponded sequentially to the English alphabet, which of course was almost totally wrong since many Greek letters don't correspond directly (or in order) to English.

I once wore football (American) shoulder pads to school, so I can "look strong."

I also dressed up as a pimp one day during my time in high school.

I used to collect car badges. From people's cars.

I kept a 9v battery above my bed and used to dab it on my tongue while reading before falling asleep.

Those are the least worrying things. I REALLY enjoyed fire..

Are car "badges" license plates?

No, like "Ford", "VW". I had a leaping jaguar. Unusually, from a Jaguar.

My father beat the hell out of me when he found them. Then drove me to the police station, parked outside and proceeded to shout at me for another hour or so, letting me believe he was "taking me in" when he'd done. He didn't though. I was 10 years old.

Is he a cop?

No, he was just violent. He was a steelworker =]

At least you didn't take hubcaps LOL

Lmao, they would have been skimmed at me, assuming I hadn't already skimmed them on the way home!

We did once "find"/"win" the bonnet/hood to a VW Beetle while there was thick snow on the ground, in a very hilly city. We got it to the top of a serious hill, which had a path running across the bottom of it, then more open land the other side of the path. I jumped on, stomach down. Then a friend jumped on my back. Then another and another. Then bigger dudes came along and jumped on too, and set it running down the hill. All the snow was in my face and my arm got stuck out front and under it, with everyone's weight on top. At speed we cut over the path, and my elbow struck the opposing curb, bringing us all to a sudden standstill. Nothing broke but I never jumped on first again..

The things we do as kids!

We really have to do silly things in order to learn not to do silly things as adults.

One summer's evening at the age of 6, I put ladybugs in my underwear so they wouldn't fly away.

Another time at the age of 6, I put tennis balls into my underwear, because I wanted to know what it was like to really be a boy.

When I was 8, I played on top of bark mulch at school and I told my mum that I wasn't. I liked the way that it felt on my hands.

One day at school at the age of 9, I dotted all of my Us and drew swastikas and German crosses all over a work sheet I was working on. The teacher's aide which I hated whited out all of my beautiful artwork and told me to erase all the dots over my Us.

I was working on a written project on the Prairie Rattle Snake at the age of 11. I got to the last page where I had to write down 10 facts about rattle snakes. I wrote down 10 myths instead. I was tired of working on that project, but I had to get it done, because my family got invited to go on a preview trip to Expo 86 a day later, before it opened the next month.

I found out the origin of the Munro name and the heritage of both sides of my family at the age of 12. I found out that there was a tonne of Scottish and English with a little bit of German on my dad's side of the family and French and English on my mum's side of the family. I knew that I couldn't pass on the family name, so I rebelled against the gender thing, put on a British mask and hypothetically flew the Union Jack with a vengeance. One morning, my sister and I were watching Hogan's Heroes. I quipped to my sister in a fake Cockney accent that I made up, "I'm Peter Newkirk!" My mum yelled from the kitchen, "Shelby! I heard that!" My sister said, "You remind me of Schultz." I asked, "Why?" My sister said, "You just do!" I've lived up to that charade for 28 and a half years until I've experienced a massive burnout a year ago this coming January. Metabolism boosters also played a part in that.

Another time the summer that I was 12 when we had company, a grown water puppy was standing on our front lawn. My mum said, "Look at that dog's face. It almost looks human." I quipped in my best made up Cockney accent, "Maybe a lady had a dog for a baby." My mum said, "Shelby! That's not funny!"

Drew ITV regional logos on my wall with lipstick and tore my brothers' football posters off their wall and smeared boot polish where they were...

I used to run around in circles while flapping my arms reciting TV bumpers from PBS until I would fall down.

When I was younger I used to play (on my own as I was VERY protective and hated sharing) with my dolls and dollhouses. My mom explains that I'd keep it in the same spot for days (inconvenient places) and would meltdown if it got touched or moved. Thinking of it now, it's quite funny how I can't handle change now & back then.

I remember I used to always sit infront of the washing machine spinning for ages and I got up and fell back onto the floor!! (spinning objects are AMAAAZING)

I always remember being interested in animals (cats, dogs and horses).

My mother said when I was about a year old, I could tell what song was playing by the pattern on the record. (This was in the 1960s). She thought I could read already.

I used to write stories about people from whatever country I was fascinated with at every time in my life. I made up characters from Japan, Spain, Argentina, Ukraine and now, Russia and Serbia. I have favorite tennis players from virtually all of these countries as well. I have two favorite players from Spain, one Argentinean, one Japanese, one Serb and a Russian-born Uzbek.

I once made a list of every country and its capital one night when I couldn't sleep.

For as long as I could remember, I had a special thing for Siamese cats. My favorite story in childhood was a German story about a Siamese cat. I had a toy Siamese I was really attached to, and was sad when I left it behind at xchool one day. I collected everything related to cats and the Siamese was my favorite breed. In 1979, I got my first real Siamese, Samantha. She lived to be 20.