I laughed so hard......

[Bill_R]

A Texas Kid's first Bow and Arrow set
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Don't know who wrote this but he has a way with words that makes one
visualize being right there beside him. Good read.
________________________________

Life as a child growing up in Texas ....

Around age 10 my dad got me one of those little badass compound bow
beginner kits. Of course, the first month I went around our land
sticking arrows in anything that could get stuck by an arrow. Did you
know that a 1955 40 horse Farmall tractor tire will take 6 rounds
before it goes down? Tough sumbich .

That got boring, so being the 10 yr. old Dukes of Hazard fan that I
was, I quickly advanced to taking strips of cut up T-shirt doused in
chainsaw gas tied around the end and was sending flaming arrows all
over the place.

One summer afternoon, I was shooting flaming arrows into a large
rotten oak stump in our backyard. I looked over under the carport and
see a shiny brand new can of starting fluid (Ether).

A light bulb went off in my head.

I grabbed the can and set it on the stump. I thought that it would
probably just spray out in a disappointing manner. Lets face it, to a
10 yr old mouth-breather like myself, (Ether), really doesn't "sound"
flammable.

So, I went back into the house and got a 1 pound can of pyrodex (blackpowder for muzzle loader rifles).

At this point, I set the can of ether on the stump and opened up the
can of black powder.

My intentions were to sprinkle a little bit around the (Ether) can but
it all sorta dumped out on me. No biggie, a 1 lb. pyrodex and 16 oz
(Ether) should make a loud pop, kinda like a firecracker you know?

You know what? Screw that I'm going back in the house for the other
can, so I got a second can of pyrodex and dumped it too. Now we're
cookin'.

I stepped back about 15 ft and lit the 2 stroke arrow. I drew the nock
to my cheek and took aim. As I released I heard a clunk as the arrow
launched from my bow. In a slow motion time frame, I turned to see my dad getting out of the truck... OH SHOOT! He just got home from work.

So help me God it took 10 minutes for that arrow to go from my bow to the can. My dad was walking towards me in slow motion with a WTF look in his eyes.

I turned back towards my target just in time to see the arrow pierce
the starting fluid can right at the bottom. Right through the main
pile of pyrodex and into the can. Oh shoot. When the shock wave hit
it knocked me off my feet. I don't know if it was the actual
compression wave that threw me back or just reflex jerk back from 235 fricking decibels of sound. I caught a half a millisecond glimpse of
the violence during the initial explosion and I will tell you there
was dust, grass, and bugs all hovering 1 ft above the ground as far as
I could see. It was like a little low to the ground layer of dust fog
full of grasshoppers, spiders, and a worm or two.

The daylight turned purple. Let me repeat this... THE COTTON PICKING DAYLIGHT TURNED PURPLE.

There was a big sweet gum tree out by the gate going into the pasture. Notice I said "was". That sucker got up and ran off.

So here I am, on the ground blown completely out of my shoes with my thundercats T-Shirt shredded, my dad is on the other side of the
carport, having what I can only assume is, a Vietnam flashback: ECHO
BRAVO CHARLIE YOU'RE BRINGIN' EM IN TOO CLOSE!! CEASE FIRE. DAMN IT CEASE FIRE!!!!!

His hat has blown off and is 30 ft behind him in the driveway. All
windows on the north side of the house are blown out and there is a
slow rolling mushroom cloud about 2000 ft. over our backyard.

There is a Honda 185 3 wheeler parked on the other side of the yard
and the fenders are drooped down and are now touching the tires.

I wish I knew what I said to my dad at this moment. I don't know - I
know I said something. I couldn't hear. I couldn't hear inside my
own head.

I don't think he heard me either... not that it would really matter. I
don't remember much from this point on.

I said something, felt a sharp pain, and then woke up later. I felt a
sharp pain, blacked out, woke later....repeat this process for an hour
or so and you get the idea.

I remember at one point my mom had to give me CPR. and Dad screaming "Bring him back to life so I can kill him again". Thanks Mom.

One thing is for sure... I never had to mow around that stump again.

Mom had been [censored] about that thing for years and dad never did
anything about it. I stepped up to the plate and handled business.

Dad sold his muzzle loader a week or so later. I still have some sort
of bone growth abnormality, either from the blast or the beating, or
both.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, get your kids into archery. It's
good discipline and will teach them skills they can use later on in
life.

--Author Unknown

[tt425]

Great story.
When I was a kid my brother and I got a compund bow and arrow set for Christmas. We shot those bows for years. Up in the air, or whatever we could find. We got a gas can(metal can back then) half full of gas,backed off about 30ft put one of those Dukes tied rag to the arrow.My brother and I shot at the same time(we done the countdown and everything). I remember the loud sound "wooof". It scared the crap out of us. Gas back in those days would actually explode. Nobody got hurt. But I wouldn't want my kids doing it. It was fun and games back then. But now that im grown we are lucky we didn't get hurt bad doing the things we did. Some of those games included: dirt clod wars(people gather on both sides of a ditch and throw dirt clods at each other),BB gun wars(self explanitory),getting inside a tractor tire inner tube getting pushed down a huge hill about 100ft tall(keep in mind the hill had about a 2ft dropoff at the bottom where the county gravel road was) you win at that game by making it across the road without getting throwed out of the inner tube. We looked both ways before we pushed. My brother was ejected from the inner tube,went into the air almost 10ft then hit the gravel. He got a few scratches and bruises.
Those were the good ole days. LOL

[dyna105]

tt425,
It's sad that today's kids will never know any of the neighborhood games. They only know games that are on X-box and crap like that...lol
To the OP, great story brought some childhood memories.