Generally it's the size and displacement of the ship, and in the case of a cargo ship, whether it's loaded or not, that determine how it rides. My ship was a 581 feet cargo ship, so it was pretty big, and when fully loaded, it rode very well. When it was empty, though (like the puke fest I described earlier) it was a different story. But smaller ships, like destroyers and frigates, had it far worse. Riding on one of those in some of seas I went through would be brutal. I'm told you get used to it, but we had some guys on my ship who would get sick in calm seas and stayed sick. You never know until you do it. And it's not like you can take the Navy out for a test drive beforehand.

But on a big ocean freighter, more likely than not you'll be fine.

This is all it takes to have a decent childhood? I did virtually ****all compared to most of my friends, because: 1. I didn't live in town, and by 6 I was doing a lot of work on the farm, and by 10 it was every day during the summer.

-Built a snowman
-Camped in your backyard
-Carried a lunch box to school
-Eaten food cooked over a campfire
-Fired a bb gun
-Got into a bottle rocket fight - I'm not sure it was before 13, but it was close
-Got into a physical fight on a school playground
-Had a bike wreck
-Had a line in a school play
-Had your own treehouse
-Joined the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts or equivalent
-Jumped off a diving board, high dive, cliff or rope swing into water
-Lit sparklers and carried them around
-Looked at pornography
-I did mow lawns for money, but by 10 I was working every day in the summer. Some of that was mowing.
-Owned Legos, Lincoln Logs, or an erector set
-Participated in a spelling bee
-Played in a youth sports league
-Rode a school bus
-Sold something (candy, cookies, light bulbs, etc.) as a youth fundraiser
-Took swimming lessons
-Visited a water park
-Went to a sleepover (or hosted one)
-Went to an overnight summer camp

EDIT: So 24 I guess.

Takes a special breed to do sub service. They go through all kinds of psychological testing before getting approved, and even then, occasionally some of them still freak out. And they stay freaked out, because a missile boat isn't going to surface to put off a freaking out crewman. I figure they probably just duct tape them to a bulkhead and go on with the mission.

44

I took a break dance class at the downtown Y around 83.

Hmm, a quick look tells me that oceangoing freighters are going to be that size or larger. And I suspect they're usually full. So that's a good sign.

These were the two ships I was on in Alaska. I was on the smaller one longer and it was in rougher seas, but I did fine. The bigger one was so smooth that I couldn't even discern motion most of the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Tustumena

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Kennicott

Modern freighters are much bigger than my ship was, and will likely be loaded out going both ways. My ship's mission was to provide supplies to the Sixth Fleet, so on the way back to Norfolk there was no reason for her to carrying anything.

Those are neat - much smaller than the one I was on. I think I would have liked being on a smaller ship more.

This is the ship I was on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Westerdam

34

I took dance lessons—ballet.

Ice skated, went coasting, tobogganing and skied. Coasted down grass hills on cardboard panels.

LMAO Poor things.

Yeah, that would suck. Hmm, it seems you're having a psychotic break. We'll get you some treatment for that in about four months. :evil:

can on your bicycle wheel, bicycle jousting just off the top of my head.

35 here.

In before Prison Bitch posts 5.

Almost the whole thing.

Jumped off the roof.
Poison Ivy --- I never have BTW, not because my childhood wasn't classic but because I won childhood.
Built terribly unsafe bike ramps.
Got detention because you were an idiot

Lots of good stuff.

Playing "Smeer the Queer" in the front yard with a bunch of surface roots.

Snow sledding down the hill in the neighborhood. If there was no snow, putting out garden hoses.

Building, from many broke dick bikes, into one with a sissy bar and banana seat.

Seeing how far you could jump said bike off a ramp, with no helmut.

Using cloths pens to attach cards by your bike wheel spokes to make it sound cool. (the world revolved around bikes)

Exploring the storm sewers.

Digging hideouts.

Build a go-cart.

Getting up to change the TV channel (only 3)

Playing Twister.

Epic snow ball fights to include snow forts.

Not ever being bored.

Your list was quite good. Took a lot of thought and creativity. Brought back a bunch of memories.

Scored 47: no teacher, collecting nor boarding school.