Did you ever have a treehouse as a kid? [Archive]

Hydrae

11-11-2004, 10:49 PM

I was with a friend about 5 miles from home (about 13 years old at the time) and we were building a treehouse behind his neighbors house. Being kids we were using whatever materials we could find. So when one of the BIG nails fell to the ground, someone had to get it.

Well, I climbed down to search on the forest floor for this BIG nail. In the meantime, the other two kids up above continued work. The walls were only single sheets of plywood (actually I believe they were pieces of siding) with no framework or anything. So when one kid had a problem and asked for help, my buddy set the hammer down on the wall and went to help him out. Remember the lack of framework on the walls? Well, it is really hard to balance a hammer on a 1/2 inch wide piece of wood.

So I am minding my own business looking for the BIG nail when *WHAM* I get clobbered in the head with a hammer from about 20 feet over my head! It sure hurt but I was okay with it until the blood started dripping onto my glasses! :eek:

The funniest part of the story though is that by the time I got up to the neighbor kids' house, both of the others had gotten there as well. My friend was crying harder than I was because he thought my mom was going to kill him for being at the neighbors house instead of his.

A ride in the back of a cop car to the doctor and two stitches later everything was fine. And no, my mom didn't care that I was next door. After all, we were 5 miles from my house, 100 feet or so was not a big deal!

And that explains a lot about me. Something about drain bamage! ROFL

Rausch

11-11-2004, 10:52 PM

Nope. We had the perfect tree but my parents were convinced "I'd put my eye out."

go bo

11-11-2004, 10:53 PM

yeah, life can be tough for a drain... ROFL

Skip Towne

11-11-2004, 10:54 PM

Oh, man, I had a great treehouse when I was 10. It had a fireplace and running water. I went by there the other day and that tree is still there and it is fvcking huge. It should be since that was 50 years ago. (BTW I was lying about the fireplace and water)

Frazod

11-11-2004, 11:30 PM

It seems like there was one in a tree behind one place I lived when I was really young, but I can barely remember it. I think it was just a platform in the tree.

listopencil

11-11-2004, 11:32 PM

"Yes, it was a multi-platform structure that was as nice as my bedroom."

But I built them myself.

Rausch

11-11-2004, 11:34 PM

It seems like there was one in a tree behind one place I lived when I was really young, but I can barely remember it. I think it was just a platform in the tree.

Fred Madison : I like to remember things my own way.
Ed : What do you mean by that?
Fred Madison : How I remembered them. Not necessarily the way they happened.

Frazod

11-11-2004, 11:35 PM

Who the hell is Fred Madison?

Rausch

11-11-2004, 11:36 PM

Who the hell is Fred Madison?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116922/quotes

It's the quote I found entertaining, not the flick...

el borracho

11-11-2004, 11:38 PM

It seems like there was one in a tree behind one place I lived when I was really young, but I can barely remember it. I think it was just a platform in the tree.
Was that around the same time that you had the drum with the quaker on it?

Frazod

11-11-2004, 11:38 PM

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116922/quotes

It's the quote I found entertaining, not the flick...

Well, that explains it. It's from a f#cking DAVID LYNCH movie! :#

Rausch

11-11-2004, 11:44 PM

Well, that explains it. It's from a f#cking DAVID LYNCH movie! :#

I absolutely hated that flick. But loved that line.

Sue me..... :)

Frazod

11-11-2004, 11:47 PM

I absolutely hated that flick. But loved that line.

Sue me..... :)

You're already on probation for Donnie f#cking Darko..... :cuss:

stevieray

11-11-2004, 11:49 PM

No, but we had a kick ass rope swing....

Frazod

11-11-2004, 11:51 PM

No, but we had a kick ass rope swing....

There was one of those behind a house across the street. You could swing out and jump across a creek, landing in a field. It was loads of fun until some jagoff parent cut the branch down. :grr:

Rausch

11-11-2004, 11:57 PM

No, but we had a kick ass rope swing....

Now that's what A'HM talk'n 'bout! :)

Otter

11-12-2004, 12:09 AM

Treehouse, BB gun, squirrles and birds.

Yes, I grew up in the stix.

And Rainman, I highly doubt a treehouse would have helped you.

RealSNR

11-12-2004, 12:54 AM

I wanted a tree house but never got one. Instead my parents gave me a swingset, because it was what all the cool kids played with and it was safer, supposedly.

It sucked. I still wanted a treehouse, but never got one

Nzoner

11-12-2004, 07:57 AM

No, but we had a kick ass rope swing....

My grandpa had one of these on his farm,went out over a swimming hole.It was all good till the day we tied a small noose at the bottom(so we could put a foot on and get a better push off for a dive)and my step-brother's foot slipped all the way through just as he'd left the bank.

He was hanging upside down,rope tightened around his ankle,screaming like a girl as his head skimmed the water and then body hitting the bank and tree as he swung back in.

Us kids(except for my step-bro) couldn't quit laughing,dad on the other hand didn't find it one bit funny and thus ended the swing.

NewChief

11-12-2004, 08:01 AM

We had a multi-story treehouse. It was awesome. It was sort of similar to the Simpson's, with four complete walls. Then you could access the roof and from the roof climb to other platforms higher in the tree. I spent a ton of time in that thing growing up. That and having a huge set of woods to "play war" in, along with a great lake in our backyard made for a very good childhood.

Of course, the Saturday work days to keep up the large property more than made up for it. My dad had no qualms about waking up me and my friends who spent the night at the buttcrack of dawn and putting us to work. Needless to say, it didn't take long before few friends wanted to spend the night at our "plantation" (no shit. That's what they began to refer to it as).

Skip Towne

11-12-2004, 08:14 AM

Treehouse, BB gun, squirrles and birds.

Yes, I grew up in the stix.

And Rainman, I highly doubt a treehouse would have helped you.
Apparently several things went wrong in Rainman's childhood.

CosmicPal

11-12-2004, 09:05 AM

We had a treehouse that was dangerously perched pretty high up in our subdivision’s little park area. A few of the teens in the neighborhood built it. This huge oak tree was standing alone- maybe 50 yards from the main street that snaked through our subdivision in Overland Park.

Anyways, it was where the teens would go to smoke weed and get away from their parents for a while without being bothered. When I got to the age, my friends and I took over the tree. One day we got this bright idea to make a dummy and hang it from the tree to see if anyone would notice. Well, that didn’t work very well, so we got this bright idea to drop the dummy from the tree when a car would pass by. One of us would scream the entire way down to make it as though the dummy was an actual person falling out of the tree.

We had one of the kids hide behind the bush by the roadside and he’d signal whenever a car would be arriving. As soon as we saw the car, we’d drop this dummy and one of us would be wailing like crazy. Most of cars would literally slam on their brakes and the driver would jump out and come running to the dummy that was lying flat in the ground of high weeds. We’d be laughing so hard in the treehouse, we’d all be nearly peeing our pants. When one of our neighbors discovered it was a prank- needless to say- they weren’t very happy. Some were downright pissed!

When I got home- my mom was waiting for me at the door with a very mean and disappointed look on her face. I was grounded for a whole month.

Phobia

11-12-2004, 09:37 AM

I had a board and a bunch of trees. I basically squatted in trees instead of taking up permanent residence.

I also had a treefridgerator. Seriously. Apples and apricots fell from the sky in my yard. I loved them. Sometimes, I wouldn't even go inside to eat for days. Just grab some apples, apricots, rhubarb, tomatoes, rasberries, or strawberries. Heh heh.

chiefs4me

11-12-2004, 09:45 AM

AW, Rainman you had a deprived childhood,,,,we had one when I grew up and my boys have one now, so if you wanna come play in my treehouse just let me know.:)

NewChief

11-12-2004, 10:00 AM

Dartgod

11-12-2004, 10:24 AM

When I got home- my mom was waiting for me at the door with a very mean and disappointed look on her face. I was grounded for a whole month.
My dad would have been waiting with more than a "disappointed look".

My brother and I had a pretty cool multi-level treehouse. Or I should say it was cool until the neighborhood bullies decided to piss all over inside it one time.

KCWolfman

11-12-2004, 10:25 AM

Actually, it was multi-platformed and it was NICER than my bedroom. And when I pushed people out it had a much more resounding effect than pushing them from my bedroom doorway.

KCWolfman

11-12-2004, 10:28 AM

My grandpa had one of these on his farm,went out over a swimming hole.It was all good till the day we tied a small noose at the bottom(so we could put a foot on and get a better push off for a dive)and my step-brother's foot slipped all the way through just as he'd left the bank.

He was hanging upside down,rope tightened around his ankle,screaming like a girl as his head skimmed the water and then body hitting the bank and tree as he swung back in.

Us kids(except for my step-bro) couldn't quit laughing,dad on the other hand didn't find it one bit funny and thus ended the swing.

Beautiful

dtebbe

11-12-2004, 10:28 AM

My best friend and my Grandma's properties backed up to each other, and there was this HUGE tree that we built a 2 story treemansion in. Actually we built 2 tree houses and the connected them with a rope ladder, where you went out the roof of one right into a trap door on the bottom of the other. The first story was a little cramped, about 4'x5' if I remember correctly. The top story was done right, about 4'x8' and enough height in the middle of the roof to stand up. We had electricity, heat, booze, nude mags, the usual. Our 2nd story also had a balcony, which was about 30' off the ground, and we had a cable suspended "porch" just below the first level. It was pretty cool. We did all the building when we were 11-14 years old. Once we started dating it came in pretty handy. The only problem was figuring out who was going to use it when. Luckily my buddy ended up with a girl whos parents let them do whatever at her house, so I had "full use" of the "passion pad". You should see the looks I used to get when I suggested to a date that we check out my "tree house". Once they got up there and I broke out the mini-bar it was all over :p

DT

Jenson17

11-12-2004, 10:42 AM

KCWolfman

11-12-2004, 12:01 PM

My whole family lived in a treehouse. It's all we could afford.

We've been suing the landlord for ten years, cause mama's in a wheelchair and refuses to make ADA accomodations.

This thread is emotionally painful for me.
Lucky bastard!! LUXURY!!!
I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our Mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."

Ghostof

11-12-2004, 12:13 PM

When I was growing, I didnt have the luxury of having big trees like all my friends to build tree houses in. I resorted to building a hay house. My grandpa had all his small bales all fenced off near his pond halfway between our house and his. I remember using hay hooks piling them and stacking them about 10 high and I bet it was near 70 maybe 80 yards long. Grandpa had placed sheets of aluminum on top along with another layer of haybales of the sheets. There was also spaces between each stack. It was so much fun. THere was a tall locust tree on the north end near the north gate. I'd sneak in through the south gate and run around the bales. It was sort of like Jenga, you had to be carful which bales you pulled out otherwise the stack would fall. Hell even one time we made a walkway from one stack to the other.

I'll never forget when we ran up there one day, playing around, we had our bb guns with us. We thought we were all badass shooting birds etc. We came around near the entrance of our fort and walked inside, not really paying attention to what was inside. My grandpa had seen us up there a few days before after school, seen what we did, and was watching us leave my house with his binoculars. He managed to get up there before we did, because we'd been busy shooting stuff.

So grandpa is sitting there in the dark and we are on the outside fortifying the fort and he says "What in the hell are you doing!" Right away, we knew who it was and we ran in the fort..LOL..he grabbed me and my friend nearly crapped. He took off back to my house and I had to put all the bales back like they were. I got home and was grounded for awhile. Seems my parents were in the plan too and everyone knew what was up.

StcChief

11-12-2004, 12:16 PM

No. But my neighbor did and that was just as good.

KCWolfman

11-12-2004, 12:17 PM

No. But my neighbor did and that was just as good.
Your neighbor also had a mom. Tell her I said thanks again for sharing.

Rain Man

11-12-2004, 12:32 PM

Not having a treehouse as a kid is one of your greatest regrets in life?!!

Obviously spoken by someone who had a treehouse.

el borracho

11-12-2004, 02:33 PM

Obviously spoken by someone who had a treehouse.
Actually, no. We had a tree but no treehouse. Come to think of it, I don't think I have ever been in a treehouse.

chiefs4me

11-12-2004, 02:49 PM

Actually, no. We had a tree but no treehouse. Come to think of it, I don't think I have ever been in a treehouse.

How Sad,,

Ghostof

11-12-2004, 02:50 PM

They dont have trees in New MExico

Now if this post said

"Who had a cacti tree house" then I bet he did!

Rain Man

11-12-2004, 03:11 PM

Did you have a cave dwelling, el borracho? That would be almost as cool as a tree house.

patteeu

11-12-2004, 04:03 PM

I had a two story treehouse with walls and carpeting but not many other amenities. It was a lot of fun. Alot of fun. So much fun that I can't imagine what childhood would be without one. hehe.

Eventually my friend, who helped me build it, accidentally burned it down with a candle.

Rain Man

11-12-2004, 04:11 PM

Hydrae

11-12-2004, 04:13 PM

Did you have a cave dwelling, el borracho? That would be almost as cool as a tree house.

I always thought it would be neat to finish out a cave as a home. :thumb:

jiveturkey

11-12-2004, 04:29 PM

We had multiple treehouses and all of them fell under the category of boards nailed to a tree. They were extremely dangerous and some were multi-level. These resembled mountain base camps and could be used as staging areas for higher climbs.

The wood would eventually fall out of the tree (usually fat kid induced) and we would build a bike/skateboard ramp.

el borracho

11-13-2004, 02:40 AM

Did you have a cave dwelling, el borracho? That would be almost as cool as a tree house.
Nope. I actually grew up in one of the beach communities in Los Angeles so there weren't many caves available. I did have many parks and, of course, the beach.

David.

11-13-2004, 02:53 AM

I had a treehouse with a tire swing on it. I used to throw up SO much from spinning in that damn tire. Stupid treehouse :harumph:

cdcox

11-13-2004, 03:05 AM

I built a tree house for my daughter when she was 5. It cost a pretty penny, but basically fell in the sturdy platform catagory. She didn't go up in it much because it was too high and frightened her.

When we moved, I angled the platform into the back of my pickup truck. I only took out 6 or 11 mailboxes on the way to the new house. I decided to lower it, so the kids wouldn't be scared. They quickly grew old enough to become bored.

I now use it when I BBQ. My wife does not like for me to BBQ on the deck because it makes the house all smokey. So now I have the tree house I always wanted, and can even cook my own dinner there. What could be better than that?