Dad bought Kent a BB gun for his 10th birthday. I was not allowed to touch it, so naturally I was particularly interested in it as a taboo item. One day while Mom was taking her daily afternoon nap, Brad and I found the hiding place for the rifle and decided to try it out. He said to me, “Let’s play William Tell.” We couldn’t find an apple anywhere, but did find an old metal flashlight with the bulb, battery, and end cap removed so it was basically a metal tube. Inexplicably, I put it up to my eye, and challenged my eight year old brother to shoot through the tube from about 8 feet away. Believe it or not he aimed and tried to shoot my eye out. Instead, the BB hit me square in middle of my forehead. Brad led me upstairs as I was crying and bleeding to tell Mom, “I accidentally shot Marc in the head.” Needless to say, after she got over the initial shock my Mom was not happy. I think it was Dad’s turn to do the spanking that night. After all, Mom reminded him that it was his idea to get the gun in the first place. An upset Kent was forced to to throw out the nearly new weapon. As for Brad? He got his comeuppance later involving another BB gun, a metal tube, and getting shot in the face.

NEXT UP – Biking around