When I was young, maybe 14 or 15, I could do stupid stuff and get away with it. I don’t remember much in the way of boredom in those days. My parents didn’t seem to mind me being gone for a day, heaven only knows wherever my bike could take me.
Some days I would go up to the high school in Garfield NJ and go into the grocery store next to the school. I would buy a small can of lighter fluid, take some free bags, all paper in those days, maybe rummage around for a cardboard box to use as a ship and exit the store with my boat making supplies. There was a drain pipe under the parking lot tall enough to walk through before I was 6 feet tall. It had a small stream of water running through it so you had to walk with your legs stretched out to the sides and you kind of waddled along in order to keep your feet dry.
Preparing the ship was easy; rip the papers to shreds, pile them into the box, squirt the lighter fluid all over the boat and light it on fire, from matches which were also free inside the store. Set the fiery boat into the stream and watch it float aflame for a hundred yards or so till it reached the outflow on the other side of the parking lot. Maybe it was a Viking thing, but lighting stuff on fire and watching it burn was part of my Boy Scout training.
Can you imagine getting away with that today? Not a chance. The FBI, the Sniper squad, the Fire department, maybe even a Chaplain would all be summoned to investigate this dangerous scene.
I don’t remember ever being really bored in those days. Always seemed to have something to do. Stupid is the only real descriptive of some of those activities, but never bored. OK, so what are we doing today?