The tallest water tower in town was next, followed by a long sewer, a deliberate crashing of my toboggan against an iron stake, and driving my bicycle off the pavement into a deep gully. I'm sure every boy in America tried the same range of physical experiments, climbing trees or daring a farmer's bull to charge at him. It's all part of growing. And kids seem to know the limit of their agile bodies and lightning-fast reflexes. An automobile traveling too fast for conditions is something altogether different.
Experiments cost lives.
One doesn't have to tempt fate in order to be the beneficiary of a lesson in life and death. Years after I had resolved never again to be an idiot, I was driving a friend's Chevrolet station wagon on the highway, back in the days when the speed limit on Interstate motorways was 70 mph. Cruising along at 80 or so, I happened to notice that there was a flickering patch of light on my windscreen, with no apparent explanation forthcoming. It wasn't the glare from the sun. At that moment, we had just entered a section of highway that was three lanes across and suddenly filled with traffic.