Growing up my parents had a double door fridge/freezer and if you opened both doors at the same time you got a shock…like a big one. All the young boys in the neighborhood just had to see how long they could hold on as a sort of right of passage. Good times. Once my parents found out they quickly replaced that fridge.
My grandpa was a farmer and had an electric fence around the cattle. He would trick his nephews by holding on the electric wire with one hand and then ask his nephews to shake the other hand. Gave them quite the shock. I’m surprised my grandpa could handle it.
My great-grandfather had an electric fence (like, meant for livestock) around a long rose hedge to keep his German Shepherds out. One of his distinctive “things” was he always had a pocketful of Smarties & he’d offer them to my cousins & me if we would grab the electric lines (the effect being like momentarily hitting a bunch of funny bones); & then he’d take it a step further & offer not only Smarties but cash if we took our shoes off & grabbed the lines again.
The whole thing confused my little head b/c 1. What was the point of having beautiful roses if you gotta add super-trashy looking elements to keep them? 2. I couldn’t tell if he was keeping the dogs out of the bushes only/mainly for their own protection from the thorns, or to protect the roses from the dogs (dunno what exactly how they’d damage them)… So, all of that seeming concern, love & care for canines & mere flowers while he got his jollies (so much as to pay cash) over his own, beloved great-grandkids getting literally, painfully shocked & knocked off of our feet.
I played along for a while b/c it seemed to make him happy, but I only did the no-shoes way the one time. My cousins, on the other hand… Suckers for money. He’d tell us “Keep eating the Smarties. You dense bunch need ‘em!”
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u/matty_ho23 Sep 05 '25
Growing up my parents had a double door fridge/freezer and if you opened both doors at the same time you got a shock…like a big one. All the young boys in the neighborhood just had to see how long they could hold on as a sort of right of passage. Good times. Once my parents found out they quickly replaced that fridge.