20 dangerous things that boys did in the USSR

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Many were not some notorious hooligans, street children or punks. But if you remember what we did in the yard, sometimes it becomes a little uncomfortable. A real extremist could envy children's skills.

Russian photographer Alexey Marakhovets told about his interesting childhood in his personal blog

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[1. Splatter

What do you think is a "sikalka"? Something from the word "sikat". And there is. It is a popular weapon of close-yard water "combat" before the era of disposable syringes in pharmacies.

The "sikalka" was made from an empty bottle of shampoo or a liter plastic bottle of "Whiteness". A hole was made in the cork with a nail hot on the stove, and a half of a ballpoint pen without a rod was inserted there. All this was sealed with mastic or plasticine. Water was poured into the bottle (for the first time at home, after - from a pipe under the balcony) and sprinkled at the opponent. It was an alternative to the expensive and hard-to-find water pistol. By the way, from the "sikalki" it was very cool to quench your thirst.

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[2. Darts

A piece of paper, 4 matches, a needle, stationery glue and thread. A homemade target from a notebook sheet was hung on the wall carpet and played. Once my friend and I were playing darts at my house and had a fight. Out of anger, he threw a dart at me and stuck it right into my hand, and in revenge I hit him in the stomach.

On the street, they also made darts from welding electrodes. One end was sharpened on a curbstone, and pigeon feathers were tied to the other. Throwing at wooden doors and trees.

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[3. Slingshots

Who remembers homemade slingshots? They were of two types: classic and keyed. The classic ones were cut from a thick hazel branch with a fork, a wide gray plait was bought at the pharmacy, a piece of leather was obtained (you could secretly cut out the house from a travel bag and dump it on your sister) and everything was fastened with copper wire or blue electrical tape.

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[The slingshot was charged with smooth pebbles, which were often brought to the courtyards along with sand, or unripe berries such as rowan, plum or cherry, which grew abundantly behind the house. Sometimes the power of a shot with a stone was enough to smash a champagne bottle from three meters. Such a slingshot was appreciated due to the fact that not everyone had the skills and funds to create it. It could be exchanged for other valuables such as Turbo, CinCin and Final90 earbuds.

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[4. Knives

In my opinion, every boy in his childhood had such a folding knife. It has always been a source of pride. He was carefully kept away from my mother's eyes and was not often taken out into the street. The knife was constantly in the sand, remember? And all because he was just a tool for playing "knives".

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[There were many variants of the game, but most often they played "Zemelka", "Tanchiki". Each game had a ton of varieties. For example, "Zemelka": they drew a circle, divided it equally by the number of participants. Each got up to his own site. Then, while standing, they stuck a knife into the enemy's area and cut off a piece from his ground. "Infected" (not stuck in) - the move passed to another. And so, according to one rule, you had to stay on your land all the time as long as you could. According to others, it was possible to stand outside, but in the event of a catastrophic decrease in your area, the enemy offered you to stand for three seconds on it. If you can't resist, you drop out. You could even stand on tiptoe of one leg - the main thing is to hold out for three seconds.

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[5. Boomerang

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[6. Smoke traps

Only our generation knows what is the connection between a children's tumbler or a tennis ball, and this one, but we know what will happen if pieces of this special, magical plastic are wrapped in foil or newspaper, set on fire and extinguished. How many nerves the uncles spent in garages when such a miracle flew to them from the roof.

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[7. Spitting tube

Another essential attribute of the boy was a metal tube for spitting with plasticine or mastic balls. Such a pipe was very difficult to obtain, and it was highly prized in the yard. A large supply of mastic or plasticine was molded directly onto the tube, from which a piece was pinched off and charged into the tube. Apart from moral damage, such spitting did nothing to its victim. Later, the tube was replaced with an empty rod from a gel pen, and the plasticine was replaced with millet or buckwheat.

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[8. Gunpowder

We got it near the Zavolzhskaya landfill, which is in the Krasny Yar area, near the sewage treatment plants. The valiant military men from the arsenal threw off these yellow things, which we collected, under the open sky. And once they brought sand to our yard. Not just sand, but with tubular powder. Of course, its concentration was small, but if you wanted to, you could collect a handful of gunpowder in 15 minutes. Apparently, the kamazist decided not to bother with sand and scooped it up in the dump area. Therefore, we no longer had to go to the dump for a dozen kilometers - the arsenal appeared right under the windows.

What did we do with him? Yes, a lot of things: wrapped in foil, set on fire, and the gunpowder in the foil turned into a rocket. They just burned, made wicks for explosives and so on.

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[9. Carbide

Who remembers magic stones with a specific smell that bubble in water? Carbide is a joy for the one who found it for the whole day! Caring gas welders shook it out of their cylinders right where they worked. Often in the courtyard of the house. And in a pile of useless white dust, a few strong stones of calcium carbide were sure to be found! When combined with water, it reacted and released a wonderful gas - acetylene. It is remarkable in that it burns well.

In whatever form was not used carbide. And they just threw it into a puddle, setting it on fire. And they warmed their hands, squeezing the carbide in the palm, immersed in a puddle. And they put it in water bottles, plugging it with a cork … But the most effective use of carbide was a hand cannon.

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[They took an empty can of deodorant or dichlorvos, cut off its neck, made a hole at the bottom, put carbide inside, spat profusely on it, plugged all the holes, shook it for a minute, opened it and brought the burning match to the small hole - a volley!

My older brother told me that in his childhood they whistled a whole cylinder of carbide and poured it into a drainage well with water. We closed it with a heavy lid with a hole and waited for half an hour. Then one boy held a match to the hole. There was such an explosion that it knocked out several glasses in a neighboring house, the lid flew up, hitting the guy first on the chin, and then covering him a little when he fell. But the worst thing is that he received severe burns to his face, the scars from which remained for life - I saw his photo in adulthood.

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[10. Lead

How much in this word has merged for a child's heart … And merged in the literal sense of the word. Remember how we scoured the garages, searched the car dump in search of old batteries? They split them and mined pure lead, beat out the dried electrolyte and crumbled the soft metal into a can or a bowl, made a fire and waited for the liquid metal to sparkle in the can.

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[And then they poured it into a clay mold and did whatever their heart desires. From brass knuckles to toys and key rings. It is dangerous, and you can get poisoned by breathing in lead vapors, especially if you melt it at home.

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[11. Magnesium

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[We mixed the magnesium crushed with a file into powder in a certain proportion with potassium permanganate, which cost a penny at the pharmacy, and wrapped it in a tight paper bag, wrapping it with adhesive tape. They made a hole and screwed a match to it, so that the sulfur head was exactly in the hole. It turned out something like this.

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[They struck a match on the boxes and threw it abruptly aside. The package exploded with a deafening noise and a bright flash.

I also loved doing various experiments with magnesium at home. For example, he put it in acetic acid and collected the hydrogen released by bubbles in a jar. And then he set fire to this hydrogen with a match. It burned out with a ringing sound. Or set fire to powdered magnesium at the tip of a knife and quickly tossed it into the water. Magnesium hydroxide, as a result of a violent reaction with combustion, sublimated to the ceiling and fell from there in white flakes, like snow. By the way, never try to extinguish burning magnesium or titanium with water - there will be an explosion of hydrogen and oxygen.

12. Self-arrows and scarecrows

From an ordinary stick or clothespin, a matchstick shot or a scarecrow was easily assembled. They shot with burning matches

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[12. Slate in the fire

I think you can easily remember what happens to the slate in the fire. That's right, nothing good - he shoots hard. In pieces. Yes, sometimes so that little remained of the original fire. Shooting slate just tossed it to the sides. To our delight.

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[13. Bombs

As a child, we already used condoms with might and main. Only not for the intended purpose. Those who lived higher, periodically "bathed" passers-by, dropping huge balls of water on them, three or four liters. Particularly frostbitten ones added potassium permanganate there.

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[14. Lamps and CRTs

It was a sin not to break the fluorescent lamp thrown into the trash. They crashed with a loud bang, if you throw the lamp on the asphalt with its butt end. They did not think about ecology then. But this find in the garbage was extremely rare and always brought great joy to the boys.

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[Lots were cast who would be the first to throw a brick into the upper lamp (the beam gun of the picture tube). She was the most vulnerable point of the picture tube. When the lamp broke, the picture tube collapsed inward due to the internal vacuum with a very dull pop that echoed in the courtyards. Neighborhood boys immediately came running to watch this action. But more often we found picture tubes with a broken lamp.

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[15. Flying Bolt

An easier way to make a "boo" was twisting from two bolts and a nut, with a bag tied to the whole as a stabilizer. I also did this thing, but without the package. I just threw it on the asphalt. And as a result, he received a shrapnel wound to his finger … A mini-operation was performed at the Central City Hospital without the knowledge of my mother. Much later, she found a hidden extract from the emergency room about a shrapnel wound. There was a shock.

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[16. Siphon cans

Used cartridges for carbonation devices (siphons) also sometimes went into business. They were stuffed with sulfur from matches and closed the hole with a bolt. Then the hellish device was thrown into the fire. I must say that this thing was the most dangerous invention of the courtyard boys. Once all the students of our school were removed from their lessons and sent to the funeral of a sixth grader, who was damaged by a splinter of such a spray can's carotid artery. The ambulance did not have time to arrive.

And another friend was left without two fingers when he was grinding a filled cylinder on an electric emery wheel. Personally, I have never made such a balloon, and I strongly advise against others.

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[17. Dowels

I think our generation can easily explain the connection between these objects. The dowel was hammered into the asphalt with a brick, removed, crumbled matches into the hole, inserted the dowel and threw a brick on top. Boo! And the piece of asphalt was gone. The matches cost 1 kopeck per box and were freely bought in the store.

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[18. Liners

Empty cartridge cases were also used. They were stuffed with sulfur from matches, and bent their necks into a fire. Personally, I made a rationalization proposal and filled the sleeves with gasoline for lighters. Bahalo is not so strong, but effective. Instead of gasoline, diesel fuel could be poured, which was easily drained from tar colliders.

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[19. Cartridges

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[Occasionally, someone had such construction cartridges that were loaded into a construction pistol to drive dowels. They also went to the fire. But it was more interesting to wrap them with thick wire, and holding the long end of it, knock the capsule against the corner of the transformer booth. The patron banged and turned around like a rose.

The guys who were engaged in biathlon sometimes had such cartridges from the "little girl" at home. Gunpowder was simply taken out of these, since the bullet was easily removed with pliers (there were idiots).

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[20. Pistons

Who had a revolver that shot those pistons? But it was more interesting to scratch something sharp over the brown spots and watch them ignite. Or even more interesting: roll a roll from a strip and hit it with a hammer. Tinnitus for 10 minutes was assured.

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[21. Pistol

Still, there were legal factory-made weapons. Remember what he shot?

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[22. Capacitors

In the fifth grade, the school was overwhelmed by a craze for radio components. Capacitive capacitors from a TV (2000 Mkf, 100-300V) were charged from a 220 volt outlet and used as an electric shock on comrades.

Smaller parts, such as resistors and diodes, were hammered into an outlet by the textbook, which led to such a normal explosion with a sheaf of sparks. [via [

[A source[parenting children courage