The Double Dog Dare in Indiana

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

CHESTERTON, Ind. — Two fourth-grade boys mimicking a scene from the movie "A Christmas Story" wound up with their tongues stuck to a frozen flagpole.

Gavin Dempsey and James Alexander were serving on flag duty at Jackson Elementary School Friday morning, with the job of raising and lowering the school's flags. They decided to see if their tongues really would stick to the cold metal.

"I decided to try it because I thought all of the TV shows were lies, but turns out I was wrong," Gavin said.

Karen Alexander, James' mother , said her son told her he got the idea from the movie, which is based on stories about a boy growing up in the northwest Indiana community of Hammond in the 1940s.

"I can't believe he did it, but they learned their lesson," she said.

James said he plans to eat a lot of ice cream to help nurse his wound.

"When you're young, you're just messing around," he said.

Billie Dempsey, Gavin's mom, said a nurse called them to tell them the boys' tongues were bleeding.

"The nurse asked them, 'OK, who double-dog dared who?"' Billie Dempsey said, a reference to a phrase that a character in the movie used to dare another child to stick his tongue to the pole.

[VAdame]

I never tried the tongue-to-flagpole thing (probably because I'm not quite that stupid!!!) -- but I always wondered whether pouring a little warm water on the area wouldn't melt the frozen bond long enough to unstick the tongue.

Anyone know, from personal experience or otherwise?

I was, however, once stupid enough to take a dare to pick up dry ice, because I had done it before & knew that I could sorta bounce it around loosely in my hand for a few seconds without getting hurt. The much older kid who dared me grabbed my hand & squeezed it around the dry ice

I was so embarrassed that I hid the blisters for days rather than admit to parents or teacher what had happened.

[MarleysGh0st]

"I decided to try it because I thought all of the TV shows were lies, but turns out I was wrong," Gavin said.

Sounds like a productive scientific experiment, then!

"The nurse asked them, 'OK, who double-dog dared who?"' Billie Dempsey said, a reference to a phrase that a character in the movie used to dare another child to stick his tongue to the pole.

Did the nurse have a frozen tongue kit prepared for an incident like this? Should elementary school flagpoles carry a warning sticker: "Yes, it really will freeze to the pole"?

[peacock2121]

My brother licked the mailbox in the dead of winter. No one dared him - he just wanted to see if his tongue would stick.

He then peeled his tongue of the mailbox and then scraped the tongue tissue left on the mailbox, put it in the freezer and took it to school for 'show and tell'.

The teacher called. She wanted to know if my parents knew what he did. My mom told her yes - that she thought it was a great lesson for them.

The teacher was not amused.

[andrewjackson]

I"ll have to pass this along to my friends in Michigan that run a summer camp up there. At least some members of the family went to Jackson Elementary when they lived in Chesterton before moving to Michigan.

They will be proud alums.

[Bixby17]

When I lived in Alaska, I put my tongue on a snowmobile trailer.

Yes, it stuck, but fortunately, I barely stuck any of it on there.

I wanted to see if it were true. 2nd grade.

When my son does crazy stuff, I have to remember that I did crazy stuff too. It is a scary thought.