Bad, but fun

I used to camp out with some of the other boys in the neighborhoood during the summer. It was usually in a field near my parent's house (between our apple trees and the woods) or in a field on the other side of the train tracks. That one was surrounded by woods.

My parents said no to one camp out, but later changed their minds. I think I had been in trouble for something one of my brothers did. Anyway, I could camp out that night...but I didn't tell my friends. I wanted to surprise them.

They were in the field across the tracks. Only part of the field was actually clear and they always pitched their tents in the clearing, near the edge of the uncleared portion. I set-up my homemade tent at the other end of the field, behind a stand of milkweeds. They couldn't see it there. Next I gathered up about 10 "gumballs" (round prickly balls that fall out of certain oak trees) and put just a little gasoline on them.

As expected, my friends eventually built a campfire. (Their dad had dug a little pit and put cinder blocks around three sides of it for safety.) When I saw the fire going, I started crawling towards them through the weeds with my little jar of surprises. I stopped just outside the ring of light from their fire. My friends were telling stories, trying to scare each other, but it wasn't working.

I pulled out the first gumball and threw it towards the fire. I missed. Someone heard it land, but the sound was dismissed. I launched the second one, but missed again. They all heard that one land and it spooked them. They were worried about what might be out there in the dark. It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud and getting caught. The third time was the charm. I threw the gumball directly into the fire pit and the flames shot up pretty high. That scared the crap out of them! All of my friends jumped up and half of them wanted to run home--one thought they were being haunted!

At that point I couldn't hold it in any more. I started laughing so hard I couldn't talk. The campers were so relieved they forgot to be mad at me. I let them each take a turn throwing a gumball into the fire and then we got down to the serious business of camping--toasting marshmallows, talking about girls, and occassionally sharing something meaningful that we never would have talked about at home, in school or in the light of day.

It was a nice night!