Did you spend time climbing trees as a child?

[dustybiker2]

I probably spent 60% of my childhood in trees. It wasn't until trimming some downed branches from recent storms, looking up and enjoying them again, that I realized how much I missed that carefree escape.

[WhiteSteve]

It’s funny, I’m super reckless about my body with some things: playing football or hockey, going into any mosh pit I can find, working as a bouncer for 10 years has its hazards, I’ve even been in full scale riots with rubber bullets whizzing past me, lmao.

But when I’m not doing any of that dumb shit, I’m wicked cautious, like I avoid doing things where I could possibly get hurt. I fish a lot, and some spots are a little treacherous, and I just don’t try anything risky, at the expense of catching fish.

And when I was a kid, I was always really careful. I had a friend who was ALWAYS fucking himself up, lmfao, and he did it doing things that I could’ve joined in on but knew better. I mean, SOMEONE had to not have any broken bones to go run and get his mom😂

Climbing trees was one of those things I’ve always avoided, to this day. Just didn’t want to take that fall. Meanwhile, after Top Gun came out, every recess session we’d get on the swing set, pretend we were fighter pilots and swing as high as we could, then at the very peak yell out that we were hit and had to bail out, and we’d jump as far as we could starting from like 7 feet in the air, lmao🤦‍♂️😂

[dustybiker2]

Oh geez. And ironically enough I have known several kids who broke bones doing that. Badly, right through skin too.

[Chazmatazz269]

All the time. I grew up on 247 acres of fields, woods and swamps. I explored it all and then some. I was never good at shimmying, but if i could reach a low branch, i was up, up and away! I slept in a few trees, and at the base of dozens. We had a tire swing hung from one in the yard. We had apple trees, pear trees and mulberry trees. So i’ve even been nourished by my homestead jungle gyms. I’m a legit tree hugger. Ell oh ell!

[dustybiker2]

Lucky man. To have had those acres. We did have a lot of farm country but it was fenced off.

[Chazmatazz269]

I wasn’t afraid to jump a fence. Until i found electrified ones. Ell oh ell!

[dustybiker2]

Oh yes. I backed into a goat fence that was electrified to keep coyotes out. That woke me up.

[Chazmatazz269]

Hahaha! Yeah. That’ll do it.

[PBandJ_Nerd]

Nope. I'm scared of heights and bugs & insects, so tree climbing would've been a nope.

[dustybiker2]

Oh yes.. there are the hitchhikers you bring inside with you. Forgot about that part. Scary looking spiders too.

[PBandJ_Nerd]

Yeah. My phobia of bugs & insects was horrible.

[dustybiker2]

It's a reasonable fear.

[PBandJ_Nerd]

We have no idea why I'm scared of them though. I question if I had a traumatic experience in a past life or if it's always been like this. Then again, if it was trauma from a past life, do we really want to know? Probably not.

[dustybiker2]

That's true too. My bet would be something in your childhood you've repressed. They do like to crawl over us.

[Veles]

Yes and I still do, trees are my happy place.

[dustybiker2]

Love this.

[exitseven]

Yes, I loved to climb trees. One time I ended up at a party is a different town. It was a big forest with a clearing. There were many kids walking around. Everyone was drinking.

I found a big oak tree and decided to climb it to get a good look at the place. I suddenly heard some girls laughing and one of them said it was raining.

[dustybiker2]

Those big oaks have lots of stories to share if they could I bet. Great night out for you.

[Wiredone]

I was climbing trees all the time. I still did it in my twenties and thirties. I think I stopped when I turned 36 years old. That's how I would trim the dead branches. I'd climb up the tree with my tree saw and cut away all the dead branches.

I stopped because one day I was in the tree and I had all my weight on one branch that wasn't in great shape. I ended up falling about 15 feet to the ground. God that hurt. I started using ladders to get to the branches after that.

[dustybiker2]

Yikes. I'm glad you're still with us.

[Wiredone]

To be honest, I'm surprised that I'm still alive with all the crazy stuff I did when I was younger.

[dustybiker2]

Living life the way it should be, sounds like.

[Wiredone]

I guess you're right. Living life like each day is my last day above ground

[exitseven]

@Wiredone you are not supposed to cut the branch that you are standing on.

[Wiredone]

@exitseven oh really? Is that what I was doing wrong?

[Charliefretz329]

Definitely! We had so many trees with thick branches all the way to the ground where I grew up.


I found incredible solace and peace up in trees.


I still recall the peace I had in my simple tree fort. I could read a book, meditate, sleep, or pray. What a wonderful beautiful thing! 🙂🙂🙂

[dustybiker2]

Love this, Charlie. You're swamp trees are some of the best for climbing.

[Charliefretz329]

We had amazing pines in the frigid north where I grew up.

There are plenty of trees down south here that attract my children though 🙂

My youngest boy was in a tree only yesterday 🥰

[dustybiker2]

Awe 😎

We had some lovely ones too. The local ones all caught a disease or infestation and started falling though. One started cracking and popping as three of us kids were in it. We managed to get down and inside to warn the neighbor and it fell. Had a hard time climbing a pine after that. They are some of the best sounding with wind theough the needles though.

[DryGermanGuy]

One of my earlier childhood memories is climbing the trees in my grandparents' remodeled garden and my grandfather taking pictures. Carefree escape, indeed.

[dustybiker2]

Lovely. I have memories like this. I can almost smell the garden flowers.

[TommyMountainFigure]

All the time.. I was the one the neighbours called in on whenever their cats got stuck in trees

[TommyMountainFigure]

I'll let you into a secret. It wasn't that I enjoyed climbing trees that much, I just never liked seeing kittens crying and the neighbours panicking, and My dad especially, always said to me, go on, you can watch tv later, when I didn't feel like it

[dustybiker2]

Good man.
Same here. I would put them in my stomach and climb down backwards to avoid the nails. Always knew you were helping them.

[TommyMountainFigure]

Thank you.. Getting down I always found more difficult because they were scared, I also never looked down going up, but always looked down going down, and only THEN realised how high I'd gone up. But yes, I had to reverse everything. and also when it is just you, you don;t feel so responsible for anything other than yourself.

[dustybiker2]

This is true.

[FunkyMonkee]

Yeah, some. But, there was only 2 or 3 trees in the area I could climb. Most of the others went straight up for about 20 feet before they branched out.

[dustybiker2]

Two or three will do. 😎

[FunkyMonkee]

There was one on 3rd & Field and another on 1st St. Alley and what would've been Field Ave., if it ran past 2nd St. I really don't remember any others.

[tzdc21]

Nope. Not even for a second. I spent time jumping off of playground swings when I wasn't supposed to, but not climbing trees lol.

[dustybiker2]

Fair enough.

[slatyb]

I did and loved it. My mother told me that her happiest childhood moments were sitting in a tree with a book, a fresh tomato, and salt.

[dustybiker2]

Beautiful. Your mother and I would get along.

[slatyb]

She got along with everyone, just loved people. An old white woman in a subway in New York, she had a great conversation with a young Rastafarian guy in dreadlocks and tats.

[dustybiker2]

haha Sounds a lot like my mum. She struck up a conversation with Alice Cooper in our local library once. Love it.

[strateguy632]

only twice, once to pick cherry and eat. once for fun but wasn't fun.

[dustybiker2]

It's not for everyone. 🌳

[bobalife]

Yes, I was a wild child hahaha. I fell a few times 🥲

[dustybiker2]

Yikes. I'm hearing this a lot.

[TadCurious]

I really didn't climb trees so much as I played amongst them. My neighborhood adjoined woods. My compatriots and I spent a lot of time exploring and also a nearby small lake.

[JCIrons]

Constantly. If it would support my weight I'd be climbing on it. I miss that too.

[dustybiker2]

It's therapeutic.

[worldscolide]

Like a lot. My grandfather built me a tree fort which spanned across two trees. Happy times..

[dustybiker2]

Excellent. What an experience.

[douride2]

Oh yea we climbed many trees when I was a kid. Fell out of a few to.

[dustybiker2]

Oof. Hope you weren't badly hurt.

[douride2]

Not from falling out of trees. Well not seriously.

[dustybiker2]

Okay, good.

[jennifer_bloom]

I climbed trees as well as a monkey at age 5 but at age 7 I lost the ability to climb them. I think it was due to decreasing upper arm strength.

[KittygosMeoWW]

Yes but my parents made me stop because I kept breaking bones

[dustybiker2]

Oh ouch!

[LaFemmeFatale_1]

I did. I was often hanging on a tree branch like a monkey. 🐒

[mrkdvsn]

Yes I did, whether it was across the street, at my grandma's, or down in the woods.

[dustybiker2]

Wonderful memories.

[mrkdvsn]

Yeah, I remember how natural it felt :)

[Paul09]

I use to always be up in a tree. I still do it once in a blue moon. But I'd do if more often if I had more climbable trees around. ;p

[Fuentes]

Barely lol I hated my childhood

[dustybiker2]

At least you tried it. lol Yeah I get that. I would have dragged you around if I lived in your neighborhood though.

[LazerBean]

Yes, all the time. It was lots of fun

[Bricealan]

Yes, I did too.

[Lliam]

Absolutely!

[dustybiker2]

Good!

[Lliam]

I remember a couple of favorites that were located in different spots. They were both massive and at the base of steep hills. From the top of the hill, you could climb onto a thick branch. When you walked the branch to the trunk, you were super high above the ground.

My childhood best friend and I used to climb a really big tree in his back yard. We would climb really high.

But I climbed other trees like a monkey whenever I got the chance. I always loved nature and felt a connection to trees.

[dustybiker2]

That first tree sounds really interesting.
I agree 100%.
Closing eyes and listening to the wind through the branches and feeling the gentle sway.

[Miah04]

Yes.😂

[dustybiker2]

Haha Why are you laughing? 🌲🌳

[Miah04]

Because my pops hated me up a tree. But couldn't keep me out it

[dustybiker2]

Awe. 😎 Good daddy.

[sirderpsalot123]

Yes lol

[dustybiker2]

It's okay Derp. Your opinion is captured in chat and points will be allotted there.

[Lynx122]

Yes I did :)

[MasterKS]

yes sometimes.

[OtterMan68]

yes, many times

[Tstrbrainer]

Love the idea.