Neighbor Kid
Scott Mclean
My son suggested some quick stories about our relationship with the neighbor boys.
The family from Texas had two boys and a girl. The girl was about our younger sisters age and didn’t factor into our day to day exploits.
The older brother got pushy and demanding at times.
Stupid move since we were bigger and onerier than him. He also had a bad case of gullibility, a bad trait to have around the McLean brothers.
He wanted to know where the bike trails and jumps we made at the creek were. We hid in the dam overhang when he’d try to follow us until we got bored with that. There was a little Bluff on the east side of the creek that had an old cow trail going down the one side. We told him that was the start of our jump run and that you needed a full head of steam to get the desired effect.
What we didn’t tell him was that the trail made a sharp left at the bottom of the steep run due to an old hogwire fence. For those that aren’t familiar, hogwire was made up of squares of welded together wire strands. Most people put a couple of strands of barbed wire above that and this fence was no different.
We gave his bike a push as he went over. We had told him it was to help build speed so he would get the most fun out of it. We heard the desired crash and howl a few seconds later. Evidently, it’s difficult to make a 90 degree left turn you weren’t expecting while going that fast. He ended up with assorted barb scratches and a lovely square waffle pattern of bruises.
He also bent the front wheel on his bike.
You would think that after this and various other incidents where he annoyed us (There were many more because he was not the brightest.) he would learn to stay away but unfortunately for him this was not the case.
If you are not familiar with electric fences, there was usually a metal box the wires attached to that was plugged in or in some cases had what amounted to a car battery.
There was usually a pulsing light that told you it was on.
There was a particularly potent version called a weed burner. Weeds could short out the regular models so this was supposed to be the solution.
Steve and I had scouted an area and determined the fence was off in one section. The other had a weed burner which was on.
The kid tried following us again and this time we let him. Not very good survival instinct there!
Anyway, we dared him to pee on the electric fence. Steve peed on the unplugged section to show him it was no big deal. The kid started to urinate on the weedburner. The fences pulse, so for a second he turned to us like it was nothing.
Then the pulse hit.
The result was the most pitiful scream I’ve ever heard and him rolling around on the ground, partly through the puddle he’d been making. We bust out laughing and left.
I know these sound mean but he was so obnoxious that it was deserved. As far as I know he is alive, healthy, and probably a bit smarter!
There will be more tales and I will touch on the years Mom had a Cub Scout den.
Bye now.