This electric fence play sighting is a personal memory. Picture it: A Northern North Dakota farmyard at sunset in the summer of 1977, or maybe 1978…possibly 79. Anyway, we’re in North Dakota visiting my grandparents for a few weeks and have made a trip to hang out on the farm of a friend of my mother’s. The farm came with a couple of kids my age I saw for a few hours each summer.

The day was spent generally goofing around outside. A highlight was riding 3-wheeled ATVs and experiencing the many idiosyncracies that led to their banning a decade later. It was all wonderful for this city kid.

As the sun sunk, we watched a pair of horses and dared each other to touch the electric fence enclosing them. I wasn’t a brave kid and imagined this is what would happen:

I was also easily persuaded to give it a try after one of my playmates demonstrated that you did not, in fact, explode like the Death Star if you touched that innocent-looking wire.

I gave it a try.

It hurt.

I tried again.

It hurt less.

Now that it was no longer scary, we fell into good old-fashioned electric fence play. What happens if you touch it with a blade of grass? Both hands at the same time? What if we hold hands, and one of the end people grabs the fence? What if you pee on it?

We tried all those things and lived to tell about it while two generations of adults watched and chatted a few dozen yards away.

Shocking Electric Fence Play Wrap Up

That 43 minutes or so of electric fence play is filed away in my brain under Play, Childhood, Memorable. I thought it was much more dangerous than it was, and that made it fun. Electric fences are designed to hurt but not harm. The ATVs were much more dangerous than the fence.

Could something have gone horribly wrong? Sure, but so could most of the things humans do every day. For example, I could choke and die on a sip of tea before finishing this sentence. I wasn’t much of a risk-taker at that age and I think one reason the day stands out is that I stepped out of my comfort zone. The ATVs and electric fence play were good for me.

Come to think of it; I recall playing lawn darts that day too.

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