Cartoon Moments ll

I almost named this post "Smrtr Maybe Was", but then remembered I did a Cartoon Moments post several years ago...something about a 2-foot long board becoming attached to my shoe and tripping me.  I call situations like that "cartoon moments"...they hurt, people cringe, but there's no real damage (the last part is the key).

Or maybe just a little damage?  I think I used to be smarter.  That was before a particular series of cartoon moments.  You'll see why.  There were too many of those moments, but what follows are two of the best (worst). 

One occurred on ice. All the kids in the neighborhood enjoyed going to a local "wetland" (swamp) whenever it froze over. We shuffled around on the ice pretending we were hockey players (none of us had skates). We didn't think it was dangerous. If the ice was too thin, your feet only went down about 6 inches. On a particular day when I was 8, it was frozen almost solid. We were having fun sliding around, pushing each other. Then I slipped and my feet went up into the air. Gravity being what it is, I landed on my head. The sound was pretty awful (the ICE made the sound, not my head--I was okay). In fact, it was such an awful sound that my friends and brothers were afraid to look under my stocking cap as they helped me stumble home. Again, I was okay. The headache lasted a few hours and in a few days I was back out on the ice (I was dumb). 

In the second situation, my friend Fred and I were building a tree fort.  I was better at climbing, so I went up first and nailed the support boards to the trees.  After I scampered down, Fred went up and waited for me to bring him plywood for the floor of the fort.  His job was to nail it to the support boards.  That never happened.  I handed him a piece of plywood and then climbed back down to get another one.  As I stood up with the next piece of the floor, Fred dropped the first one.  It landed right on my head.  Thankfully the long, flat side hit me (the edge might've done some real damage) and I came away from it with just a headache and a sore neck.  We never did finish that fort.  Instead we decided to dig an underground fort.  What could go wrong if we stayed on the ground??? We had a rhythm going as we dug (Fred bent over using a very short shovel, me chopping the dirt with a very long hoe). Fred must have lost the rhythm because I accidentally hit him on the back of the head with the hoe.  It was an accident, honest (I would never intentionally hit anyone with a hoe)! 

How did any of us survive childhood???  LUCK!



PS - I make light of what happened because it was me and I'm fine.  But it's really important to wear the appropriate helmet whenever you're skating, biking, riding a horse, walking through a construction site, whatever.  We don't have to bubble-wrap ourselves (or kids), but please be careful...and never walk out onto a frozen pond, stream, anything.  It's too dangerous.  Don't lose IQ points the way I...ah... What was I saying???