Classic tropes from childhood - did you ever do any of these?

1. Perform home dentistry with a bit of string tied to a door handle
2. Stick a bucket of water on top of a door frame as a practical joke

feel free to suggest more...

Never did number 1 but as kids we tried #2 on my Dad and nearly killed him!

We just thought it would be hilarious, the bucket landing on my Dad's head and him not being able to see temporarily and being a bit wet and flustered like in the Beano comics.
Instead the bucket crashed down at lightning speed, landing hard on the ground at his feet and splitting in two. I'd never felt so awful afterwards. If he'd walked out underneath it instead of just pushing the door open, he would have been hospitalised. I still sometimes lie awake at night with my fist in my mouth thinking about that.

3. My wife came from a household where #1 was regular dental practice and I had to lobby a bit to get her not to use it on our son.

Sorry, don't know why I made that #3!

The whole door/string thing is strange - people really did it, but I can't imagine anyone advising it now. Did it actually work??

It apparently worked. Not always as smoothly as you would want it to.

I did the string/door thing because the way my dad wanted to extract my loose teeth was with a pair of locking pliers. The thought of those going in my mouth was WAY too scary/Little Shop of Horrors, so he recommended the string thing as a DIY. It's pretty psychologically excruciating, too. It's hard to convince yourself to shut the door with enough force for it to have any effect on your mouth.

Fucking hell did you people grow up in the 1910's or something?! Never heard of the door/string thing happening outside of a cartoon strip.

well yeah, it's why i ask.

What about:

Putting a pin on the teacher's seat?
Standing on a rake and getting whacked in the face? (my Dad, haha, actually did this. Poor soul).

I never did the tooth-door thing, but supposedly (I was only told of this a few weeks ago) I once punched one of my younger brother's loose teeth out.

5. Apple-pie beds

6. First stabbing, aged five, as a school initiation.

Putting a pin on the teacher's seat?

seen this happen. someone got detention.

7. does anyone's dad actually teach them how to shave? is that real?

tooth to string, string to car bumper, drive away

trope variant

I had an electric shaver to start with. My dad just said "switch it on and then shave". I remember asking if it would hurt.

Wondered about #7. actually. Used to be something that I felt bad about re "daddy issues". It's a bit late now but it would actually be slightly nice in a way if I found out that was a total myth. Certainly something that bugged the hell out of me when I was 14 and slicing my lip open (I think that only stopped bleeding last week).

happy 15th birthday!

8. abused by priest

7. does anyone's dad actually teach them how to shave? is that real?

Um, yeah. Is this really unusual?

On the other hand, this is OTM:

Fucking hell did you people grow up in the 1910's or something?! Never heard of the door/string thing happening outside of a cartoon strip.

I learned to shave by stealing my dad's razor and barbasol and proceding to slice the shit out of my throat.

My parents were divorced and my dad stationed outside the US by the time I had to learn to shave. I learned by trial and much, much error.

I used my mother's razor to try and shave my legs but had no idea how and cut the shit out of my leg and then tried to hide it bc I was embarrassed. My mother said, "Cut yourself shaving, did you?" or something, and I lied and denied it, and then decided to chill out and love my leg hair for another summer before trying to do that grown-up thing again.

I did exactly the same thing even though I'd been told I wasn't allowed to shave yet. I totally butchered myself. My mom turned up with a tube of Nair the next day and said I could try shaving again in a couple years.

Aww that was nice of her!

Nair is probably the worst thing I have ever allowed to come in contact with my body. What a nightmare.

My mom taught me how to shave by letting me "play with a razor" which is not as dire as it sounds - she'd give me a safety razor with no blade in it and some shaving cream and I'd pretend-shave when I took a bath.

Just last year I burned the shit out of myself with Nair after leaving it on for the absolutely minimum time recommended. Foul stuff.

I still occasionally use the sensitive skin stuff on areas I don't feel comfortable letting a blade near and it's mostly been fine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Courter

no shaving here