Dumb Stunts and Mischief:
(Don't tell my kids about any of this because they think that their Daddy was perfect)
We were pretty good kids by today's standards but we did get into some mischief at times. Some kid had an old auto hubcap and we came up with a real neat game. we would hide in the bushes and wait until a car would go by and then we would throw the hubcap out in the street. It would roll around and make enough noise that the car would usually stop and the driver would get out to get what he thought was his hubcap. We took turns doing this and we would run out and grab the hubcap and run off with it. If the driver chased us we would make a good chase of it and if they got too close we would throw the hubcap down and keep on running. They would finally give up and go back to their car only to notice that there were not any of their hubcaps missing. ( I learned many of my new words that way.)
I had taken a few turns before but one day I threw the hubcap out behind a new Oldsmobile and ran out, picked it up, and ran down the street. The driver had gotten out and I looked back... he had a pistol in his hand. I heard a shot and threw the hubcap down and ran as fast as I could. I saw Old Lady Sprouse's (sorry, that's what we called her) fence ahead of me and I remember reaching up and touching the top of her high wood fence and sailing over it like a bird. Under normal conditions I would not have been able to even climb that fence. I didn't play that game any more. (We thought that Mrs Sprouse was a German spy because she spoke with an accent.)
Another game we geniuses thought up was that we would stand with a couple of us on each side of the road. When a car would approach we would all pull back like we were pulling a rope tight across the street. The cars would usually slam on the brakes and maybe skid to a stop. We would laugh and run off. (I said that we were good, not smart.) I learned some more words.
They were building a new school and they had built a fine ramp to get up on the roof with wheelbarrows. The ramp was a magnet for kids on bicycles and after the workers left for the day we would ride bikes up and down the ramps. After the roof was poured it was a huge flat place to ride. That became tame after a while and we decided to see who could ride between a board that was going to hold the tar on the roof and the outside of the roof. This was a space about 6 inches wide. All went well until my buddy rode off of the roof and fell into a pile of gravel. Nothing was broke except that his bike's front wheel was sort of warped and flat on one side.
I don't know what you would call it but we called it "Tree Topping". We would climb trees that were growing close together and make them sway back and fourth enough to go from one tree to another. Poplar trees were our favorite. As far as I know nobody ever got hurt doing this.
A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.
Yogi Berra
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