Wednesday, February 08, 2006

A Should-Be Warning for Sling-Shots

When I was about 15, my sister (Crystal), her best friend (Melissa) and myself went to a Christian concert in Boone, NC with a huge group from our church. We had so much fun.
Of course, being the women we were, we decided to go shopping. My sister's best friend felt sorry for my brother (Benjamin) because he didn't get to come with us. (I felt no pity. He was after all an 11 year old pest.) In her pity, Melissa bought my brother a sling-shot.
Maybe you didn't catch it, but I just said that Benjamin, at this time of life, was a TOTAL pest. Crystal and I tried our hardest to convince Melissa of the folly of her ways. We tried to tell her that Benjamin would certainly get in major trouble with a sling-shot.
She, however, was convinced that she could convince him to be responsible with it.(Yeah, right!) So Crystal and I resigned ourselves to the fact that we would probably be shot with a slingshot at some point in the next few weeks. (We weren't so, so happy with Melissa about it!!)
Fast forward about a month. So far my brother had actually taken Melissa's responsibility speech to heart. Partially because mom watched him like a hawk with the sling-shot. Partially because he didn't want to lose it.
But with Benjamin goodness could only last so long. Something possessed him to try his hand at shooting marbles from his slingshot at our trashcan. Sadly for him, this trashcan was INSIDE THE HOUSE! Also sadly for him, the trashcan was placed directly across the room from our oven.
You've probably guessed it by now. The marble missed the trashcan and crashed into the oven door, shattering it into millions of energy filled pieces. It took months to find all the glass (most of the time it appeared in my bare foot) because it literally jumped across the floor like millions of jumping beans. One of the weirdest things I ever saw.
Needless to say, my brother never saw the sling-shot again.
A few years back, I went back to Boone and returned to the Mast General Store. Melissa was with me, but she didn't buy a sling-shot. In fact, she steered clear of that part of the store. However, I did see one unsuspecting Grandpa buying one for his scarily happy grandson.
So if you're reading this, I warn you against the evils of the sling-shot. Heed my warning, and you may save a few windows (or oven doors as the case may be!!)

3 comments:

Peggy said...

Love the new blog but glad you are keeping the other one too!!!

Anonymous said...

I'm never lettin a slingshot near my 4 kids, after that!

Anonymous said...

I going to give Trace, no Raegan a sling shot next time.