I'm LOL'ing at this topic.
There were a few dumb things. Does any kid do just ONE dumb thing? Well, in case anyone missed it previously:
My parents liked to take trips to Las Vegas. My mom liked Joshua Trees & we always stopped in the desert so she could take photos next to them. When I was around 5 years old, we drove a mile or so into the desert & my dad started taking photos. I had a habit of wandering & petting every animal I found outside. My dad knew that & it was really stupid of him to not keep an eye on me. I saw a large snake next to a bush & picked it up. I remember thinking: He comes with his own built-in toy - how cute his tail was - with those rattles on it...yeah, Rattlesnakes have those. I was handling him for at least 5 minutes when I heard my dad yell, "Hey...put that down...he can kill ya!" I said, "But he likes me." My dad didn't want to come near me while I was holding him. I gently put him down. To this day, I don't know why he didn't bite me or even rattle.
When I was 7, my dad had some kind of door-to-door sales job. He'd take me with him & I'd wait in the car while he knocked on doors. Again, he wasn't smart to leave me alone in that De Soto when he knew I liked to play with every button & switch in the car. Well, he parked on a hill & said, "Don't touch anything," then he started canvassing the block. Of course, when he was out of sight, the first thing I did was press the starter button. I loved the way it made the whole car shake. Well, everything was OK until I played with that pull-out parking brake lever, then the car started rolling down the hill, going faster & faster. I jumped into the back seat. The car went over a curb & slammed into a tree (luckily). It could have hit a pedestrian or another car. He never yelled at me for that; maybe he realized how stupid HE was.
(Don't continue reading if you're squeamish). When I was 10, my brother & I were playing handball against the side of the house. I was barefoot. As I ran up to hit the ball, I heard a scraping sound. I looked down at my foot & saw that a nail went through the side of my big toe & out the other side. I started to pull it out but it was so rusted, it broke off. When I pulled on the other side, it also broke off, leaving a piece stuck inside the toe. Well, I went into the garage & found a brand new nail & used it to push out the broken piece. I poured peroxide into the hole & put a Band-Aid over each hole. It healed perfectly. "Tetanus?" What's that?
No more serious incidents....until I was 16. I'm swimming at the beach, maybe 50 yards from shore when I felt a tug on my foot - like someone grabbed it as a joke. I reached down & felt something thrashing. I didn't know what it was until it swam away & I saw the fin sticking out of the water - a small shark, (luckily) maybe 3-4 feet. The water was cold & I didn't feel any pain, so I thought it was minor, but when I got to shore, people started gasping & pointing at my foot. There was an open triangle-shaped flap & every time I took a step, it gushed; that's what was freaking people out. I wrapped it in a towel & drove home with my other foot. When I got home, I couldn't find bandages that were big enough, so I stuck the flap back on & covered it with masking tape. It healed fine - maybe the salt water prevented infection. Or, maybe the Shark just brushed & gargled with Listerine.