Five Dumbest things you ever did
 

Ground Rules:
You can't tell us about drunk driving (we don't need to document that).
You can't tell us about the car (boat, motor etc.) that you passed on in the 70's. Really, all of us over age 55 did that.

I am sure if I think about this long enough, I will want to revise, but this is what I am thinking tonight.
Try to keep it clean. I'll start:

1. Cliff Diving from 70 feet

1.a. Gainer from 70 feet

2. Married at 22

3. Tried to water ski behind a sail boat (hey, we had 50mph gusts). It was fun trying though.

4. Ran home from the church (about 6 miles) one afternoon not knowing there were 100 mph winds and rain on the way. Almost didn’t make it. And... it was raining so hard my ex-wife drove right by me and didn’t see me, almost running over me (yeah, the one I married at 22).

5. Snow skied in shorts for 6 hours (no shirt for about 4 of that) on April 12 one year in Santa Fe. Bright sunshine all day long. Could still see the tan line three years later.

Pics attached for 1 and 1.a.

And the smartest thing I ever did: Married Sherri.

Re: Five Dumbest things you ever did
 

In no particular order.....

1. Driving very recklessly through residential neighborhoods in my 69 Nova as a teenager
2. Driving that same 69 Nova at 15 years old without a valid operators license after working on it
3. Riding a dirt bike with shorts on and severely burning my leg on the hot exhaust pipe
4. Entering the ladies restroom by accident at a Panera Bread out of town.
5. Trimming a tree in the yard last summer without first looking for a hornets nest. Yes, I
got nailed several times in the face and neck area by hornets who had a nest in the tree. I was
on a ladder also and jumped off backwards nearly killing myself to get away.

Rich

Re: Five Dumbest things you ever did
 

Now this is a good exercise just before New Years.

Good to reflect and not do the same stupid things twice.

1. At sixteen used to take my dads car and go as fast as it would go...bury the speedometer, the needle would stick and as he was driving to work the needle would reappear from the high side

2 At sixteen used to do reverse donuts for hours (FWD 87 Sierra)the speedo needle would get stuck under the zero Kilometers per hour, and bounce up as my Dad was driving to work.

3. Driving my 1969 Chevelle SS 396, married for years but still some kind of Macho man, girls pulled up beside me, I put it in neutral, revved it up, pulled it into gear, and flew backwards, with me flying towards the steering wheel. Not a cool move.

4. Was a "preppy" when preppys were cool, sperry docksiders, lacoste, polo, Ocean pacific, I see the pictures now and laugh.

5. Got married at 20, (I had just turned 20 3 months before) girlfriend/fiance was 19 (she just turned 19 a month before)now this was stupid but it was the best stupid thing that I/we ever did, we just had our 21st anniversary (And our fortieth birthdays recently) and have no regrets. Beautiful (Coma) Chevelle loving wife would tell the same stupid/wonderful story.

Ryan

Re: Five Dumbest things you ever did
 

we just had our 21st anniversary

Congrats.

Re: Five Dumbest things you ever did
 

----As you might guess, mine revolve around cars I was either to stupid to buy or didnt have the funds for. Also, cars I sold waaaaaay too soon.

----1. I couldnt raise the funds for my cousins 1965 427 Cobra. Did I say it was serial #3003. I like to forget that part as well as the price ($5500). It was 1969 after all.
----2. I couldnt raise the money to buy one of the three GT40s that actually raced at LeMans. My boss found it and would have let me have it for $30,000 in 1976 with the resto almost done. My offer of $3,000 (which I would have had to borrow) wasnt accepted!
----3. Almost didnt marry Jan, my long suffering wife, as she has kindly kept me alive for the last 35 or so years so I could pull all these bonehead moves.
----4. Painted my 1969 Monaco Orange/black leather L88 Corvette roadster with 3,000 original miles Black.
----5. Selling my now black L88 roadster for $6,500 to Jerome Shinkay!

----There are so many more, but I have to stop. Really, I have to........Bill S

----Merry Christmas to all!!!!!

Re: Five Dumbest things you ever did
 

Bill, Some of the cars that you owned and past on are amazing.I dream about being in the mid 70s buying muscle cars for peanuts. But in the 70s I was in grade school and the 60s car were getting very rusted. John

Re: Five Dumbest things you ever did
 

Ok, 5 best dumbest things I ever did. Most seem to occur around the winter of '79 in Chicago, lots of snow and cold and being 17 years old.. without alcohol.

1. Jan. '80, -12 deg. f. , -50 deg. f. windchill, high school was cancelled...my friend and I went ice fishing all day on Lake Zurich IL with no shanty, no tent, we thought it was fun.

2. Skitching around the snowy neighborhood streets behind the Chrysler wagon my friend's parents owned. The rear gate was the perfect height to hold while standing with the rear window down. Hockey shin pads were great to use to slide on your knees while skitching and holding the bumper, not so great for the jeans over them. Mom wasn't happy. The dumb highlight for me was going 50 mph behind the wagon down Euclid Ave. in Mt. Prospect, I wish I had a picture of that.

3. Jumping off the 2nd story rooftops into the snow piles.

4. A nice summer day at the lake, filling the ski boat with 5 gals. of gasoline while leaning against the boat, I didn't notice the stream of gas soaking my swim trunks...wow that boat was hot!... jumping in the water didn't help!....a burning fireball and a swarm of stinging wasps comes to mind....a great torture method for sure.

5. College spring break '82 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on the beach... bad rip currents and someone in trouble off shore..I went out to help the guy, I remember holding his head up as long as I could as others came to help. I barely made it back to shore myself. Never underestimate big water.

Re: Five Dumbest things you ever did
 

This was all before I got smart on cars and parts.

1. Parted out a very real Black/Black deluxe ex race car 1968 Z28 Camaro. No motor or transmission. Emblems were filled in and car had rear flares. I thought it was an original big block car (due to tach redline) at first but it had small block heater box. Car was rusty so I parted it. Still had the DF wheels up front and BU 12 bolt. This was around 2000.

2. Ended up with a BE 12 bolt that had a broken ring and pinion out of Harry Tillman speed shop in 1999. Fixed it with a Richmond gear 4.10, painted it up, and sold it at Englishtown for $900. This is before what I knew what BE meant. I just thought it was cool it was original 4.10.

3. Didn't buy original true barn find at farm in Salem NJ 1970 Chevelle SS 396 4 speed Medium green functional cowl car all original for $1500 because the car had wheel locks (sitting on Ansen slots) with no key. I only had a 2 wheel dolly at the time. Couldn't get it home so I passed on it.

4. Didn't buy 25 Muncie transmissions for $2500 in 2004. Don't know why but that just seemed like a lot of money at the time.

5. Sold a super nice 1967 Fairlane GT 390 4 speed convertible in 2006 for $7500 because I only paid 4k for it a week before. I always wanted one. Why did I sell it? Still kicking myself on that one.

Re: Five Dumbest things you ever did
 

Ok, I thought this was non car dumbest 5 things... my dumbest 5 things car wise is much more than 5, but we all missed cars and parts back in the day, who knew.

Re: Five Dumbest things you ever did
 

The one that takes the cake for me was helping neighbor back his nice orange/bvt 68 ss big block auto air camaro onto a pair of steel ramps on a slick concrete floor. Car jumped straight into the air, shot ramps forward and landed on them bending both rockers. Car was later painted black and sold at Carlisle in early 80's.