Mixed Motivations
Scott Mclean
Had a little pop in my lower back the other day so it’s been encouraging me to write. Sorry! Besides our ornery side, Steve and I had our occasional moments of nice. No really!
About this time of year the wildflowers pop up on Cowiche Mountain. We would find a discarded cup or can, put some water in it, and bring Mom a bouquet of wildflowers.
This of course was after we tired of looking for the first reptiles of the year or shooting at things with our wrist rockets or pellet guns.
I even fixed the shift derailleur on the neighbor kids new 10 speed when he messed it up. Of course he would then annoy us and we’d have to show him the error of his ways. Did you know that you could paint a mixture of Tabasco and Ben-Gay on a bike seat and leave it overnight? Turns out it will reactivate when the heat from someone’s hind end while pedaling warms it up. By all accounts, quite uncomfortable! In this case our recipient of the reward walked bowlegged for a day.
My fifth grade teacher was a rockhound and had actually lived where our house was years before. I would find things like agates and petrified wood for her. She would occasionally put them in her rock polisher and give some back to me. Probably helped her forgive me for the fence lizard in her desk. I thought it was just another cool item from Cowiche Mountain to give her, honest! She even told my folks that she got a kick out of me. I hoped little brother would have her too but she retired. Not due to me!
We helped the neighbor kid finish up his sprinkler set once when he dawdled and it was getting dark. Of course, he irritated us again. There was one hay field by the flats that had to have 4 inch mainline strung down from up the hill on Pioneer. You usually turned a trickle of water on to wash out the pipes while you set them. When you had the plug in the end you would hike up the hill and start gradually turning the water up, but not until you saw water coming out of the last sprinkler head. There were willows around the valve and Steve and I used them to hide behind on this occasion. Steve kept a lookout and told me as soon as the kid had the plug in and headed back up the hill. I opened the valve as fast as I could. The combination of water pressure and gravity due to the steep hill had even better effects then we had hoped. Two sprinkler risers popped off, a couple of pipes unhooked, and the plug blew out about 10 yards. We then moved farther down Pioneer to watch the show. He frantically ran up the hill to close the valve and stop the geysers. He hooked the pipes back up and put the plug in after he finally found it. He then had to walk down to the shop to get a wrench for putting the risers back on.
I always wondered why it took him so long to learn not to aggravate us. Hopefully, one day, little brother and I will be able to play pranks together again.
So hopefully one day far in the future, you may be puzzled about goofy and unexplained things happening to you. In the meantime I have two Grandsons of similar age difference to Steve and I who could probably use some coaching! Maybe Gunner and TJ could stand in as their very own Uncle Gales, or Gingo if they prefer.
Later folks and thanks for putting up with me