Bushwhacked
Scott Mclean
Today I’m going to regale you with more tales of adolescent foolishness. There, I’ve used my fancy words for today.
Every kid had their hideouts and secret places.
I’ve already told you about the overhang on the dam in Cowiche Creek that allowed us to hide behind what amounted to a short waterfall. There was also a clump of large old greasewood and sagebrush on Cowiche Mountain that had a tunnel like quality. You could sit underneath in the shade and be hidden from outside eyes.
It was also the best area to catch horned toads!
Our neighbor kid walked right by us on a few occasions without seeing us. I think he thought we vanished.
There was a small pond just up the hill from there which was probably fed from the canal. We would catch frogs and waterbugs. The ones that looked like they had a set of two paddles would deliver a painful bite or sting. Of course we tried to scoop them at each other!
On one occasion we made use of three of our favorite items. Wrist rocket slingshots, a bucket of crabapples, and firecrackers. The neighbor kid was trying to find us and was on the road going to the canal. We stuffed firecrackers in crabapples and one of us would draw the slingshot back while the other lit the firecracker. We would shoot them up through the sagebrush with the intent of showering the kid with apple shrapnel. A few shots did get close and had him running for cover.
The fuses on the firecrackers were neither consistent nor predictable so a few exploded a little too close to us for comfort. Luckily the brush provided some protection. The neighbor kid headed for home in a hurry.
As far as I know, he never did find our hiding spot.
We also liked creeping over in the dark to scare him and his brother as they were both uneasy outside at night. Probably partly due to us!
We got hit by some payback one night. We were headed back home laughing about scaring them. We climbed through the pasture fence and were heading for the front lawn when a voice sounded in the dark behind us. Dad had figured out what we were up to and decided to scare the crap out of us. It didn’t go to that extreme but maybe our pants got a little damp!
Dad kidded us for weeks asking if we’d seen the boogeyman lately.
That’s all for now. Later!