Darwin award

Sandman
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Darwin award

Post by Sandman »

This weeks Darwin award goes out to the idiot parent who was riding down the road yesterday on a dirt bike helmetless with his 4 year old kid riding on the gas tank (wearning the oversized adult helmet). He was trailed by 2 other kids that looked about 10 and 12 (no helmets). I'm glad I was going slow as they were on the wrong side of the road on a blind curve!
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Re: Darwin award

Post by reptilist »

Like lemmings to the sea.
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cubfan64
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Re: Darwin award

Post by cubfan64 »

I lived in a very small town in central Illinois for a number of years and remember a somewhat similar story.

A young son of a fairly wealthy farmer in town went out joyriding in his pickup truck while drunk one afternoon. The cops chased him down country roads at speeds in excess of 100 mph. He finally pulled over and when the cops approached him they saw his 3-4 year old kid standing in the front passenger's seat in diapers and not belted in. The driver told the cops they never would have caught him if he hadn't had his toddler in the car with him.

This was the same guy who for the 4th of July would fill enormous garbage bags with acetylene, tie a short string soaked in gasoline to them, light em and run. We only went to one "barbecue" where that was going on before we decided we needed to pay more attention to the guest list. In this case, some of his "buddies" would shoot bottle rockets at him while he was filling the garbage bags.

Stuff like that really makes you shake your head.
Mike C.
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Re: Darwin award

Post by Mike C. »

I am blessed with a real doof of a neighbor that rides his bike up and down our street with his little boy sitting on the tank. Neither wears a helmet: the child is wearing ONLY diapers (no shirt,shoes). The doofs footwear are flip-flops! He also mows and weed whips his lawn wearing the same flip-flops! :? Mike C. Brea, Ca.
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Re: Darwin award

Post by LeeVW »

It's easy to see how some of these people can have so little regard for our natural areas. They have no regard for their own lives or the lives of their loved ones!
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Re: Darwin award

Post by LDMGOLD »

Ironically there are plenty of them out there. It happens everyday in every state, in every county, in every town and in every city. There are not enough Darwin Awards to keep up with these immature creatures.

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Re: Darwin award

Post by Mrs.Oroblanco »

:lol: :lol:

The Darwin award, huh? I'm not sure the law of natural selection is working. :D

Tell the truth now - this is mostly addressed to us folks who are 59+. How safe were we when we were young? I have an old statement that I use consistently - "if I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself"
:oops: :oops:

The truth of the matter is that we were left alone when we were 11 - we were taking care of other kids when we were 12,
we went outside and found lots of things that hurt, stung, smashed, crashed and things that would have given our parent heart failure.

We had our own guns, we rode on bikes with NEVER a helmet, in the middle of the roads - we went to friends houses without permission - we just made sure we got back by a certain time. We jumped off bridges into the water to swim,
we raced our cars, or we were the flagmen for others racing (admit it now, we are the muscle car generation), our parents told us not to get into fights, but to defend ourselves - if we didn't, they'd kick our butts. Schoolteachers hit us, and then when we got home, so did our parents. (you never complained about a teacher back then). We skipped school, climbed trees that were huge, used sand and gravel pits to make jumps for our bikes, plus shabby boards and what have you, and fashioned stuff that could have easily killed us.

Darwinism? I'm not sure it really works, cause - here we are, and most of us have procreated, and thats the kids who are driving down the street with an adult helmet (have we EVER used a helmet?)

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Beth (Mrs.O)
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cubfan64
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Re: Darwin award

Post by cubfan64 »

Mrs. O - you make a good point, but I have to ask a question that I've always wondered about when I get into discussions along these lines.

Were most of us just lucky, or did we somehow have an inherent knack for knowing just how far we could push things? I often think of the absolutely stupid things I did as a kid, but other than a couple where I KNOW I just got lucky, the rest just never quite crossed that line into "Darwin Awardism."

My brother and I often talk about this because he's one of those guys who always went just ONE step beyond what he should have and ended up getting arrested, in serious accidents and having all sorts of other issues that I never faced all because he started doing many of the same things I did, but always took it to another level.

It's an interesting thing to think about :)
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Re: Darwin award

Post by Desertroad »

Growing up, I remember a lot of tree climbing. Some trees just can't handle having a half-dozen kids all in the topmost branches! :D

But my propensity for risk taking didn't really mature (I use the word loosely!) until I enlisted in the Army in '77. Apparently the military is more safety conscience these days than they used to be. I still wonder how my buddies and I, 18-20 years old, managed to survive our "play" with live ammunition, C4, CS gas and the occasional purloined hand grenade. We would train all week and spend our weekends out in the woods experimenting with creative ways to combine the effects of our left over training supplies. I recall the informal weekend training was enhanced by the six-packs of beer we brought along!

The story of the brother who always went too far rings true for me, as I was always the voice of caution while many others would just set everything off at once. I'm thinking about how peer pressure makes us do things we might not otherwise do. I wonder how many hill climbs and new single track MC trails are made worse because one kid (including 18-20 year olds) just goes off in a direction and the other kids in the crowd just follow. Is it just me or does the one kid always seem to be the one to tease the others back in camp about being "wimps" if they didn't follow?

We can manage lands all we want, but we'll never manage youth and reckless abandon.

And this goes for those of us who are now in our 50's and never grew up! :D

Desertroad
Jim Hatt

Re: Darwin award

Post by Jim Hatt »

Desertroad wrote:And this goes for those of us who are now in our 50's and never grew up! :D

Desertroad

And in our 60's and some in their 70's... :lol:
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