BOISTEROUS BOYS

My mother-in-law was a nervous woman.  It was no wonder.  She gave birth to six children in an eleven year period.  Her second son, Gene, and my husband, Ken, who was born four years later, did their share of mischief to cause her anxiety.  To say they were creative in finding things to do is an understatement.  They definitely possessed active imaginations.

One of Ken’s earliest memories is of flying through the air and then waking to see his mother’s face looking down at him.  Gene recalls that she was screaming at him, “You have killed my baby.”  The children had been to the circus and the boys were attempting to do a stunt they had seen.  The acrobatics looked easy.  They got a 2×12 board, centered it on a sawhorse and placed it near the chicken house.  The plan was for Ken to stand on one end of the board and for Gene to jump off the chicken house onto the other end.  Ken was then supposed to do a midair somersault and land on his feet.  All went as planned until Ken started upward. The last thing that he remembers as he flew up was his knees hitting his chin with great force.  Everything went black at that point.  He did not land on his feet.  He said that he literally saw stars as he lost consciousness.

Gene had done something even more dangerous before Ken was old enough to be his sidekick. Their Dad had an old car sitting on blocks in the barn.  There was a belt connected to the back axle and it was used to run a power saw.  Somehow Gene got a hose and siphoned gas out of the car.  No one ever knew why he decided to attempt this other than that it might be fun.  He didn’t do it right and swallowed some gas.  He lost consciousness. Fortunately, his little sister was with him and ran for their mother.  Their mom somehow got him to vomit it up.  I can only imagine the anxiety that this caused her.

The family lived in Ada, Oklahoma, when the children were young.  Their Dad worked for the Frisco Railroad as a fireman.  The tracks were a short distance behind their house.  The switching yard was close by.  They freight trains moved slowly as they left the switch yard.  The boys would grab a bar on the side of a freight car and climb the ladder to the top.  There was a walkway down the center of the cars at the top.  They would walk along the top jumping from one car to the next.  There was a cement plant about five or six miles outside of town.   When the train reached the plant, they would jump off and roll as they hit the ground.  They would play around the cement plant until the next freight train came by going toward town.  They would pick a car and hop it back home.  The train would be going faster in that direction so they had to be quicker getting on and getting off behind their house. They didn’t try passenger trains as they went too fast and had no rails on the sides to grab.  This was a great pastime until they happened to hop a train their Dad was working on.  He saw them get on as the train went toward town, but he could do nothing until he got off work.  They both distinctly remember literally being yanked out of bed when he got home at 11 PM.  His form of behavior modification was to apply a belt to their backsides.  They ceased hopping freight trains after that.

There was a livery stable in Ada.  The horses and mules were kept in a pen.  The boys would sit quietly on the fence, pick an animal close to the fence, jump onto its’ back, and hang on.  The animal would start pitching and this would cause the other animals in the enclosure to start moving around.  They would hang on as long as they could, hit the ground, dust themselves off, and get back on top of the fence and do it again.  They were oblivious to the danger of being trampled by the excited animals.  Their guardian angels were probably overworked.

There was a rope swing on a large tree beside a creek not too far from their house. The creek bottom and the banks were very rocky.  They were not to go swimming without an adult.  This rule did not matter to them.  For years they would swing out over the rocks and drop into the creek.  They never got hurt or got caught disobeying

Not everything they did was dangerous.  Some things were just mischievous.  There was a neighbor who felt it was her duty to call their mother and report any misdeed she observed.  She kept the phone line busy a great deal of the time. The boys did not appreciate her help.  The family had a milk cow.  They carefully put two fresh cow patties into a paper sack.  They quietly put this present on the lady’s porch, struck a match to the paper bag, knocked loudly, and raced to a ditch across the road.  She could not see them in the ditch.  By the time she had stomped out the fire, they were long gone.

There were fun times as well.  The circus came to town once a year.  They boys would help drive stakes for the tent ropes and do other chores as the circus set up.  They were given free tickets for their work.  The circus unloaded on a siding near their house.  The elephants were used to pull the wagons carrying the other animals and equipment.  Ken was sitting on top of the section house one day watching them unload.  The section houses were small sheds used to store hand cars and rail repair tools. They were about “elephant high.”  One of the handlers asked Ken if he would like to ride the elephant. Of course he would like that.  The handler brought the elephant alongside the section house and Ken jumped over behind the handler.  Riding an elephant was very exciting for a little boy.

Learning to smoke was another adventure.  Ken had a dime and Gene and their oldest brother had a nickel.  They bought two cigars for fifteen cents.  To be fair since he had furnished the most money, his brothers gave Ken one cigar and they split the other one.  They also told him how he should smoke it.  He was told to bite off the end, chew the tobacco and swallow it.  He got deathly sick and decided he wouldn’t smoke any more cigars.

Their grandfather smoked a pipe.  He never cleaned it.  Ken sneaked it out of the pipe stand one day when his grandfather was at work.  He took it near the barn, leaned back under the shade of some trees and prepared to have a leisurely smoke.  He tamped down the tobacco, lit the pipe and took a big draw.  He said the trees began to spin so he decided to give up pipe smoking too.

There is an old expression that God looks after fools and little children.  An appropriate addition might be that he also looks after their mothers.