Musings: A Little Crazy…
“I like someone who is a little crazy but coming from a good place. I think scars are sexy because it means you made a mistake that led to a mess.” Angelina Jolie
Musings: A Little Crazy… running through fire
Back in the days when we were young, stupid, and full of crazy ideas about our invincibility, a few childhood friends decided to tempt faith. JimJim, Xenia, Joe and Patty had heard that a small brush fire in a neighboring town was beginning to spread. The town alarm had gone off and fire fighters from every little town, north of nowhere, grabbed their gear and headed in the direction of the wildfire.
It was a hot afternoon and the foursome were bored. After playing a round of pool, JimJim had an idiotic idea.
“Hey guys, wanna go check out that fire?” He asked
Xenia, a little less foolish than the rest, shook her head. “No, not today!” she mumbled
“Come on guys, it’ll be fun. We can go watch the fire fighters, light a few cigs from the brush, and take some photos of each other pretending to walk through the fire.” JimJim continued.
Patty yawned and turning her back on the rest, closed her eyes and fell dead asleep on the old black leather recliner.
“What do you say Joe? Wanna go?” JimJim pressed Joe hoping he’d take him up on the offer.
“Heck, why not. I’ll join in if the girls come with us.” said Joe
And so the conversation went, back and forth, back and forth, until Xenia relented. Patty woke up somewhere in the middle of this mess and got dragged into the crazy plan they had concocted. What was the plan?
Yeah, it was crazy alright but you have to wait to hear it. Those fools were lucky they lived to tell the tale.
More below.
Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy. Nora Ephron
Musings: A Little Crazy… to walk on fire dressed like…
JimJim had the less than brilliant idea to have each of them dress up as some wild animal. The idea was to park their car a distance from the actual fire and then, wear their garb and dash out to the road near the firefighters. They would run along the perimeter of the burning bush and when they found a smoldering fire, they would dash in and out.
Needless to say, the idea took an almost nasty turn when, JimJim, dressed like a zoo bear, ran through the burning bush straight towards a cop who was standing nearby, chatting with a friend. The cop saw JimJim and quickly reached for his gun. At the moment when the cop released the safety clip and fired a shot at JimJim, Joe came bounding out of bushes screaming… “No, no, no! He’s my buddy. He’s a teenager!”
With alacrity, Joe knocked JimJim down, taking the cop down with them. In the chaos, a fire fighter jumped on Joe, who, by the way, was wearing a deer mask and horns. A horn poked him in the eye and the firefighter fell on top of the cop screaming… It was a big mess as others gathered to separate man from beast (pretenders to the throne).
The four teens were arrested, locked up, and had to show up to a hearing. Their parents were furious and they were grounded for the rest of the year. As for the deer, bear, and monkey suits they wore that day, JimJim’s mother put them to bed in a small bonfire behind her home. Yep, that was crazy alright! How about your crazy teen years? What did you do? Do share.
This post was inspired by a prompt from WP Daily Post: Let’s Go Crazy. Sometimes, we act on impulse: it could be something as small as ordering that special dessert on the menu, maybe asking out that cute boy or girl, or as large quitting your job and selling everything you own to become a shepherd in New Zealand. What’s the most crazy, outrageously impulsive thing you’ve ever done? If you’ve never succumbed to temptation, dream a little. If you gave yourself permission to go a little crazy, what would you do? Photographers, artists, poets: show us IMPULSE.
Positive Motivation Tip: In life, we can choose to live carefully or impulsively. Either way, there are consequences and stories to tell.
PHOTO CREDITS/ATTRIBUTIONS: All Photos: Smokey, Deerfire, via Wikipedia, or via Flickr and/or my personal collection.
Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank
Mirth and Motivation
Positive Kismet
Trackbacks
- Daily Prompt: Impulse | The Wandering Poet
- Daily Prompt: Let’s Go Crazy | Nola Roots, Texas Heart
- Crazy for Thinking I Could Change Him
- Daily Prompt: Let’s Go Crazy | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss
- Dodgy Doges and Fresher Frescoes | litadoolan
- [M.M.X.I.V. 67] Elevators | Never A Worry
- How I Got A Book Published “On Impulse” | The Political and Social Chaos Blog
- This Right Here | Views Splash!
- Gone Sailing
- Poem / Poetry – “Impulse” – “Embrace Your Impetuousness” | toofulltowrite (I've started so I'll finish)
Oh man – kids are crazy. Sadly, I have absolutely nothing nearly as “interesting” to tell about my teenage years. I was quiet and shy.
I find that hard to believe… You are such fun to be so quiet! 🙂
Dear Fellow Blogger: Before you leave a comment, please pause and consider this: How would you like guests to introduce themselves when they enter your home? By their name or by their business/title? I use my name, kindly tell me yours. I’d really appreciate it. Thank You! 🙂
According to Slate magazine’s Travoltifyer, mine is Kaitlyn Marsheem. Will that do? 😆
Indeed. That would suffice; unless you’ve graduated from creative writing to creative id theft. 😆 Love it!
no scars other the acne’s scars lol I do have a scar from when I work at McDonald and burt my arm because the fry vant burnt me
Thank God you’re okay! Even acne had its stories… I have some sad ones. 😉
Yep those burn were like little nicks no big burns but it still there to remind me of how clumsy I am
I hear you… The little ones stick around.
Oh my goodness! What a crazy mess they got themselves into! I have had some really bad experiences with fire that cause PTSD but I still managed to get a little giggle out of the man versus beast scene you so eloquently described!
Ha ha! Thank you Erica! You had me laughing again. Glad you picked up on that one.
I never did anything like that. Not sure what could top it. 🙂
Haha Jackie! Good to see you here! There are crazier things kids did when I was growing up… This is pretty tame. 😉
great story…a little crazy as you say…but, that’s what we do sometimes in growing up…
Crazy can have its amuzing moments and I suspect we’ve all been there. True, all part of growing up
Wow, that’s crazy. Well my kids are just babies. And I really hope that I have no stories that interesting and crazy when they are teens
They all do! It’s just that some kids do more dangerous things than others.
My girls are always getting into mischief. Fortunately we’ve only had one ambulance ride (so far) and very little scarring. Fingers crossed for no more!
Hopefully they won’t do any more dangerous mischief. How about you in your teen years?
You’re right! There are always stories in everything we do.
Yep. Some we learn a lot from and others that we repeat the same mistakes and learn from. TY!
Teen years are always an adventure! I didn’t really do anything wild or crazy, but my kids made up for me.
I can imagine… It tends to happen that way, no?
On St. Patrick’s Day during my senior year of high school, 3 friends and I left school after third period and drove into NYC to watch the parade. Then we drank beers in a pub and still made it home before dark.
Great story! I have such great stories from growing up.. Maybe I should blog about a few!
I think you should… It would bring back many funny memories too
What a story!
Ugh, I don’t think I can tell my crazy stories here. Oh wait, there is the time I was so excited about winning a football game. I was hanging out my best friends car window, when she turned a corner her car went one way and my body went the other. Thankfully I wasn’t hurt, just ridiculously embarassed.
That must have been scary! WoW! Lucky you made it out alive
Good thing you made it out alive… Phew! That was quite the incident.
Oh how to be young again. We sure did do some wild things didn’t we?
We sure did! I could tell stories that would make heads spin… But I’ll save those. Te he!
I’m definitely a little crazy but I always come from a good place. 🙂
Haha Maria, I believe YOU! Everyone in NY is a little crazy. 😆
There’s always a consequence for everything you do. Hard lesson in life some just do not ever learn
Exacto! Even when we think no one sees us or notices, the consequences remain. Frankly, it’s not worth continuing behavior that will cost us more in the end. TY!
I will have to admit, I am not one to do crazy and impulsive things. It is just not in my nature, LOL. I think things out and I don’t ever react to an action unless in is an urgent situation. It has served me well.
Good for you Pam! You might be one of the rare few that have never acted on impulse. 🙂
Is this true, it could be? if you made it up it’s incredible clever, you’ve mixed humour wth teaching a lesson brilliantly. Love it Eliz 🙂
A bit of fact and fiction… to spare the guilty and entertain the rest. Thank you for catching the humor. 🙂
Liked the suspense behind the impulse here!
Thank you Lita! I had fun writing this one and I’m glad the delay worked. 🙂
ok I don’t have any crazy stories to tell sadly. My teenage life was very mundane. Wish I could share something cool but I’m boring. 🙂
I’m sure there is something there… Amanda. You’re not boring at all. 🙂
Great post….so true whichever path we take there will be consequences and stories to tell – some happy and some sad.
True and it all adds up to what we call life experience. Thank you!
I agree that sane people will be the first to tell you their shortcomings. 🙂
I’m curious about your take on the story and the lesson learned. Aren’t we all a little crazy? 😉
How lucky that the policeman did not get a shot fired off, aaaaaaaaaaah!! I bet the parents were furious, that’s a pretty dangerous activity they set out to do. Thank goodness there was a happy ending.
That was crazy alright and yes, they were lucky that JimJim lived… It could have taken a deadly turn. 🙂
Heavens. I’m really hoping that was a piece of fiction because if someone had really done that, it would be deeply stupid, so old Mr Boring Stuffy Middle Aged Main, ( Snore snore…. grump grump ) My book comes out on the 19th BTW 🙂
WooHoo on the book! Where can we get a copy? Amazon UK? US? Let me know…. 🙂 Yes, the teens were deeply stupid Ha! 😆
I never did anything crazy as a teenager, I held two jobs and went to school. I had a bad experience that made me give up normal teenage life and normal living and well I never got it back. I do have to admit, those kids were not too bright with what they did. You never get that close to a wild fire and never distract the people who are putting their lives on the line trying to save everything/everyone.
Thank you Jennifer and sorry to hear you had a bad experience early in life. Hope healing took place for you.
The teens were being typical teens in a dumb way… Yep.
I was a good girl growing up so I don’t have many crazy stories but my husband has CRAZY stories, I mean one I can’t even say because of the circumstances but he was in a position where he had to literally run for his life. He was in so many places at the wrong time when he was young. I know he’s going to be a hard to fool father now though with the girls.
That is the best lesson he learned… not to be easily fooled. Maybe you can write about some of his experiences. It would make for great reading.
Hi Eliz,
It seems to me that I was a very boring teenager, though I do remember doing dumb things like trying to teach my brother how to drive a car, and having him hit a neighbor’s mailbox.
One time my brother and I were driving out of the small town where we went to high school, and a cop pulled us over because he saw us drinking out of cans. Our cans turned out to be soda, so the policeman couldn’t say much to us. That was our big foray into danger.
No great stories of living crazy on my part.
I enjoy the Angelina Jolie quote!
Karen
What a riot! I did some dumb stuff too and I’m happy that is in the past. Love the quote too. Glad to see you here Karen. TY!
Hello. What a scary story! I don’t have any stories like that from my teenage years, but I know my younger brother does!! I watch my boys like a Mama Hawk ALL the time! ( they’re little). So scared to let them go off one day.
It sounds like quite the adventure! I don’t have too many good stories from high school, aside from dating stories. Glad those days are behind me! 🙂
Yup we used to do crazy things all the time! Never go in that much trouble though.
Haha! I can imagine you climbing trees in neighbors yards. Those were the days. 😉
That is one hell of a story. Tell me, did you take that incredible photo of the deer in the River?
Thank you! I wish I did… it is an amazing photo. Glad you noticed it. It’s a Wikipedia public domain shot.
I looked for a long time ands I know your talent so I thought perhaps! Great wacky story though!
TY so much and the sentiments are mutual. 🙂
Oh the joys of raising teenagers! My kids are all in their 20s but I never fail to remind them to act responsibly. I tell them to always ask themselves this question – “What would happen next?” before they do something out of the ordinary. So far, its working. 🙂
Good for you! It’s a blessing to have reasonable teens in the home. Mine are too and so I’m grateful for that too.
Wow, what a story! My teen years were so very un-family friendly, lol! I rarely talk about them on my site. I should, just as a cautionary tale!!
Please do. It would help others find peace, closure or understanding about their teen lives too.
As a teenager, I was seriously boring. Except for my singing – I was a loner 🙂
Singing! How wonderful You were being productive. 😉
I have played with fire when I was kid. One time I tried to light a fire cracker by holding it in my hand instead of placing it on the ground. You can imagine what happened next. Let’s just say I never repeated that again.
Good Lord!!! You were lucky. We played with fire and it makes me wonder what the attraction to fire is about… 🙂
I didn’t really do anything crazy as a teen, I saved that for my adult years. As a teen I was busy studying, being bullied and working I’d say that those kids deserved the punishment they got and then some.
I’m glad you followed up with the adult years. Friends who were calm during the teen years, caught up in adulthood. Hah!
Wow, I have realized i had a NON crazy teenage years…. I was very down to earth and worked for my family…
Good for you Amy! You were spared the nonsense. 😉
I was an ornery child. lol. Always exploring everywhere and hung out with trouble as a teenager too.
You hung out with trouble… I like the image. So many of us did and then some. 🙂
What a story! I cringe when I think about my scrapes as a teenager.. I’m always glad my parents never found out!
Same here… and I’m glad we didn’t get ourselves killed. We did some really silly things. As a mom, I’ve been very protective of my kids.
I love your creativity, and I really like the quotes you include in your writing! Sets the stage perfectly, I think!
TY so much Kristen. Sometimes I wonder what I would do without such quotes…They do set the tone for me. 🙂
Everything has its own story – some days it’s all dull and some days, its just crazy, impulsive and everything. Mixed. lol! But I guess, that’s just life.
Exactly…. Life is not linear or we’d all be bored and boring. 😆
This is such a thoughtful post. The quote made me burst in tears, because my boyfriend was in hospital for weeks because of a mental breakdown. He’s ok now, but it was such a devastating experience.
I’m sorry to hear that… I do hope he is doing better… {Hugs}}