Survival Tips For Growing Up In A Large Family

[Sharkfin]

Use this thread to discuss or constructively criticize my regular feature (Survival Tips For Growing Up In A Large Family).

[Indigo4789]

Your survival tips are so true. I'm pretty sure every one of them has happened to me at one point or another.

[Sharkfin]

Yes, the survival tips are one of my more inspired features, and believe me when I say; they come from personal experience.

I look forward to talking with you more. Come back any time.

[Indigo4789]

So how many siblings did you grow up with?

I got stuck with 3 rowdy brothers. *sigh*

[Sharkfin]

I had two brothers and a sister. That may not sound like a lot but keep in mind; the three of us boys shared the same small room. I really mean small. There was about two foot of space between the bed and the bunk beds. We also shared the same dresser and the same closet. Later we also had to squeeze in a computer and a Nintendo.

That tiny room was a stifling, cramped, nightmare. And the worst part was that you couldn’t swing a good punch without knocking stuff off the toy shelf or busting off the closet doors.

[Indigo4789]

Yea, I know how that is. My older brother and I were pretty much raised as twins and we had our fair share of fights. Luckily being the only girl meant I got my own room.

[Tbolt]

Hello!

I love the Survival Tips!

I didn't really have a large family, one brother & sister, but being the runt of the litter, I got to be the bendy toy for my older siblings =^^;

My favorite is using saliva to mark one's favorite bit of food, wish I'd have thought of it!

[Indigo4789]

Unfortunately my younger siblings also use the saliva method of marking food. On the other hand, I am one of the older siblings so it's easy to torture them.

[Sharkfin]

My little brother was the first one to have the saliva idea. Being the smallest (at the time) he had to rely on manipulation rather than muscles to get his way.

We wouldn’t really "spit" on our choice peace. In reality we would just lick and/or poke whatever peace of food we wanted to lay claim to.

Thanks for the forum entries

[Tbolt]

The funny part is that as I've grown older, my tastes have changed. Stuff I wouldn't have thought of touching when I was a kid, I now really enjoy! Our family's Eastern European heritage demanded a lot of cooked cabbage in the recipes ("Mom the house smells like something died! Do we actually have to eat that?!") Now I make the stuff! Although I find that judicious amounts of garlic help enormously with cooking aromas!

[Indigo4789]

"Mom the house smells like something died! Do we actually have to eat that?!"

I have heard that so many times at my house.

And I love cooking with garlic!

[Tbolt]

"Mom the house smells like something died! Do we actually have to eat that?!"

I have heard that so many times at my house.

And I love cooking with garlic!

Hee, hee, the Unites States Army broke me of my fussy eating! (Ever hear the old axiom: "The older you get the smarter your parents become"?) My dad always told me that "If you are hungry, you WILL eat anything." "Right dad..."

Then I went to basic.... 6' 2" tall, 156 pounds!

I was the only one in the training platoon underweight! When the appetite kicked in... Basically I told time by meals. (10 to breakfast, half past lunch, quarter to dinner...)

I think I scared the Drill Instructors with how much I could eat...

DI: "That boy is skinny, give him extra!"

Me: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!" (Scooby Doo voice)

DI: "Oh, a smart$&%! You better eat all that, boy, otherwise we'll have a discussion after chow!"

Later:

* Ate all food, was first in line for seconds, and shamelessly mooched food off all trays within reach! *

DI: ...

[Indigo4789]

I think I surprise some people with how much I eat too. I guess they expect all girls to be dainty and not finish what's put on their plates. But then again, I've been told I act more like a guy than a girl.

[Tbolt]

Part of it depends on your metabolism too, the older you get, the slower it gets, especially if you do not maintain a high activity lifestyle (one of the reasons why I had to give up dark lagers in favor of light beer! =>.<; )

[Indigo4789]

Yea, well that's why I keep active. Once it gets warm, I'm always camping, hiking, or bouldering - it's great because there's a state park about 20 minutes from my house. Plus I'm in scouts so that's plenty to do as well.

[Sharkfin]

I've never been a picky eater. In my family it wasn't about what you ate, it was more about getting it before it was all gone.

I have a really strong stomach too. I can eat sardines then eat donuts, and drink orange juice, and then smile about it.

[Indigo4789]

Love the one about shooting crabapples (around my house we use acorns). Thanks for the giggle on a crappy day.

[Tbolt]

Love the one about shooting crabapples (around my house we use acorns). Thanks for the giggle on a crappy day.

Ouch, now that hurts more than the crabapples!

We never really had the chance to do that, we had apple trees, but when I was little, I couldn't reach them! =>.<=

The other neighbor had a chestnut tree whose fruit was covered in a horrific spiked ball ... We were VERY discouraged to use that against each other! =^.X;

Crap, they're building a new housing project in the woods where I used to run around. I don't know which is worse, the loss of the area, or the fact that they are putting up cheap $300,000 homes there I wanna know where the jobs are that allow people to afford places like that! (Sorry rant at the loss of childhood memories)

[Sharkfin]

We had acorns too, but I preferred crabapples over acorns because crabapples splatter against the sides of houses or trees. Even if you miss the person the splatter is still pretty intimidating, and the sticky spray is not without a little satisfaction.

[Tbolt]

Hee, hee, back when we were too poor to afford paintballs!

Random idea:

My coworkers and I used to go paintballing every month, but that kinda dropped off (we had several friends involved too, and synchronizing schedules became impossible) This left me with three freshly filled CO2 canisters, and about 3000 paintballs.

Idea: Went to our local pistol range, where we have several gongs... Now I could "paint" the gongs, then fire my regular pistols, see how my accuracy was, then repaint them if I made any adjustments! =^^=

(Was almost surprised that nobody complained...)