Fun Times ...

"I have one head that wants to be good,
And one that wants to be bad. And always, as soon as I get up,
One of my heads is sad."

.... The battle between good and evil was played out at my house. Cops and Robbers, and Cowboys and Indians were my favorites. I was always the good guy I have you know! We never seemed to worry about a lot of things back then, all my buddies were terrific, and our parents cared enough to keep us on a short leash. I was a good kid most of the time ( most) .. even though I have to admit I did have my transgressions.

 My parents always believed that they felt secure enough in our decisions to let us be ourselves to a point. The rope was attached to a firm hand just in case, and knowing that our behinds would be on the receiving end kept us for the most part on the straight and narrow!  I'am not saying knowing that there were ramifications for our actions kept us entirely out of trouble,  sometimes as a youngster you just have to push the envelope...

Most of my youth experiences were fun, and exciting, even though later....  could be classified as poor choices. Just sometimes you had to do things .... and one in particular  I would like to share.

 Old man Berry gets his wake up call ......

A majority of my friends went to Maryvale High School in Phoenix, and usually on a home game Friday night we would gather a bunch of friends and head to the game. On the way back home from the games, we did what kids do, " have fun". Old man Berry lived in a house bordering a huge field, this field seperated our homes from the new subdivision , being the route of choice for those not willing to walk around . Every Friday night Mr. Barry had a habit of leaving his window slightly cracked and watching the news in his underwear. All of us on the way home could set a clock by this guy, his routine never changed.

On this special night A few friends including myself decided that we needed to liven Mr. Barry up a touch. On the way from the game we tied a bunch of "wildcat" firecrackers together and hoped Mr. Barry was in his usual position on the bed. A few of us ran up to his window and peeked in. It was better than we could imagine, he was asleep! I pryed the screen away from the frame and another buddy lowered the bundle of twenty firecrackers onto his table in front of the window. We had tied a long fuse to the bundle beforehand and had just enough to strike that match from outside the frame. We lit the fuse and ran !!  BAM BAM BAM!! Old man Barry screamed like a little girl ...We felt hiding in that field was the best place to be .. until Mr Barry turned on his huge flood lights ! This guy was going nuts .. he was standing on top of his roof in his underwear screaming at the top of his lungs, that he was going to kill all of us ! I was never sure what he would have done if he was able to get his hands around one of our necks ...but somethings are left to the imagination. We never did tell our parents and they never found out ... remember that hand at the end of the rope ?  lol   

later all .......