The BB gun incident is one of the most memorable of all the things that happened in Denison. Not the most memorable but I've never forgotten it. I also learned something very important about myself.
I loved guns when I was a kid and I've owned them most of my life. I also hunted for most of my life and I ate what I killed. Finally gave it up and now all I shoot at is targets. Lol, I still own an air rifle too but it's way more powerful than any BB gun around.
Lol, getting off the track again. I was a good shot and I practiced a lot because I wanted to be the best around. I really hate coming in second. I could hit what I was aiming at or come damn close.
We had a rear exit from the second floor apt and it had a little balcony on the back where the stairs were. Not really a balcony but a large landing with railings around it. I used to go out there and shoot at the sparrows and blackbirds sitting on the wires.
There was also parking back there for the two apts. It was just your normal average graveled parking lot where my stepfather used to park his car. At the time of the incident it was also very hot outside and particularly in the parking lot.
Me and the neighbor kids were out back shooting at birds at other things like beer bottles and junk from the landing. I was shooting at a sparrow on the ground about 20 feet from the car.
Got it lined up in the sights and pulled the trigger. About 1 second later the back window of my stepfathers car shattered. Now you know that the 3 neighbors out there thought I had shot the back window out. I wasn't even aiming anywhere close and I'd never miss by 20 feet. Nor was the car in the line of fire.
Of course a ricochet was possible but it wasn't likely to me that you could shatter the back window of a car with a BB gun. It just didn't have the power to do that but I couldn't think of any other reason for it to happen.
We all hurried back inside and never said a word to anyone. My stepfather discovered it the next morning and he was pissed. He thought someone threw a rock through his rear window but there was no rock in the car. Because I didn't believe I'd done it I never said a word.
He got the rear window replaced and that was supposedly the end of it. I thought so too. Then about a week later the neighbor kids told me if I didn't give them 5 bucks they were going to tell my parents I'd done it. Told them they'd have to wait for me to get the money and they gave me a week.
Blackmailed at 12. I thought about it for awhile and could see that being blackmailed would continue to be an ongoing process and that wasn't going to happen as I wasn't going to let anyone else control me or what I did.
With the deadline coming up fast I had to decide what to do. I didn't have anything good on the neighbor kids so it was either pay or confess and take my beating.
Now not being totally dumb I decided to tell my stepfather so I went to where he worked and told him what had happened and what the neighbor kids were trying to do to me. Hey, at least he couldn't beat me at his job.
That's when he told me the body shop had told him the heat buildup in the car from all the windows and vents being closed was what had caused the window to shatter and that they'd seen it happen on other cars. He'd even asked them if it could have been done by me with my BB gun and they'd told him it wasn't very likely.
Then he told me he was going to talk to the neighbor kids dad about what they'd tried to do to me. He did and they got the beating they thought I was going to get. Nice.
So I learned I'd rather face a beating than be blackmailed and live in fear forever. Really it was a control question and I wasn't going to let anyone be in control of me except for me. One beating and grounded for some time or pay them off every week at least until we moved again.
No brainer to me.
Showing posts with label BB gun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BB gun. Show all posts
Monday, September 24, 2007
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Still bored in Denison
My cousins mother, who I always wished was my mother, showed up at our apt with her boyfriend. Didn't make me very happy because I liked her husband much better. It also changed all of our sleeping arrangements so that didn't make me happy either.
They and my parents also spent a lot of time drinking so I was also in more trouble than usual. I was also quite angry that my aunt was screwing over her husband with a boyfriend so I was more than a little crappy in the way I treated them.
I didn't have as much freedom in Denison as I had other towns because the bar my parents drank in was right down stairs from our apt. Plenty of freedom in the daytime as they both worked but daytime has never been my time of day.
I've been a night person pretty much since I was born. I'm quite comfortable in the dark and always have been. Sunshine hurts my eyes. I just don't like bright. I've always been one of those people who keeps it dark inside too, even in the daytime.
Shades are all pulled and curtains are closed. I don't know where the habit came from. When I'm not traveling and have my own place I always have room darkening blinds and curtains. One small lamp on is all I need. When I'm traveling the motels all have room darkening drapes and I always keep them pulled. Vampires and I have a lot in common in that area. ;)
OTOH I love to lay in the sun, by the water, and tan but I wear my goggles from the tanning booth or my dark sunglasses.
Oops, wandering again.
My aunt and her boyfriend stayed for 4 or 5 days and I was pissed off at her for years over that. Reality is it was none of my business but I really did feel bad for her husband and my cousin. The whole incident just caused me a lot of stress.
Lol, my mouth used to get me into a lot of trouble. Hmm, used to my butt, still does. I've always been kinda blunt and have never had a lot of tact or sugar coated whatever I had to say. I've learned over time to just keep my mouth shut but things still come out that shouldn't have been said. I said a few things to my aunt, that were true, but tactless as hell and caused me a worse than average beating.
School was easy in Denison because, as I've stated before, Minnesota was like a full grade ahead of Iowa schools so it was boring. I'd already learned the stuff the year before. So that was just plain boring.
My aunt came back about 3 months later bringing my favorite cousin with her. She's still my favorite relative and I like her better than anyone else in the world. She's one of the few people in the world that if she calls and says she needs me I will drop everything I am doing and go to her immediately and do whatever I can to help.
For me to do that for anyone is beyond rare. It's right next to unheard of. I wouldn't even do that for my sister.
Somehow, in Denison I talked my parents into letting me get a BB gun. I don't quite know how that happened but I had it and it was going to get me into trouble with my mother and stepfather after a few months.
From my perspective Denison was a boring, boring place. I don't remember any teen center, bowling alley, roller skating rink or anything for kids to do. Not even a lake anywhere close by that I could get to. Just nothing.
I had my paper route, which was quite small compared to the one I had in Fairmont. Between the cash I'd stolen in Fairmont, the money I could steal from my drunken parents and the cigarettes I stole from both of them I didn't have much need for anything else. Oh, and I always shoplifted the BBs for my BB gun.
Heh, don't remember if I mentioned it before but my stepfather was a butcher so we always had great cuts of meat to eat. Unfortunately I was still required to do most of the cooking. It did come in handy when I moved out on my own tho.
Just a nothing place with nothing happening, ever.
They and my parents also spent a lot of time drinking so I was also in more trouble than usual. I was also quite angry that my aunt was screwing over her husband with a boyfriend so I was more than a little crappy in the way I treated them.
I didn't have as much freedom in Denison as I had other towns because the bar my parents drank in was right down stairs from our apt. Plenty of freedom in the daytime as they both worked but daytime has never been my time of day.
I've been a night person pretty much since I was born. I'm quite comfortable in the dark and always have been. Sunshine hurts my eyes. I just don't like bright. I've always been one of those people who keeps it dark inside too, even in the daytime.
Shades are all pulled and curtains are closed. I don't know where the habit came from. When I'm not traveling and have my own place I always have room darkening blinds and curtains. One small lamp on is all I need. When I'm traveling the motels all have room darkening drapes and I always keep them pulled. Vampires and I have a lot in common in that area. ;)
OTOH I love to lay in the sun, by the water, and tan but I wear my goggles from the tanning booth or my dark sunglasses.
Oops, wandering again.
My aunt and her boyfriend stayed for 4 or 5 days and I was pissed off at her for years over that. Reality is it was none of my business but I really did feel bad for her husband and my cousin. The whole incident just caused me a lot of stress.
Lol, my mouth used to get me into a lot of trouble. Hmm, used to my butt, still does. I've always been kinda blunt and have never had a lot of tact or sugar coated whatever I had to say. I've learned over time to just keep my mouth shut but things still come out that shouldn't have been said. I said a few things to my aunt, that were true, but tactless as hell and caused me a worse than average beating.
School was easy in Denison because, as I've stated before, Minnesota was like a full grade ahead of Iowa schools so it was boring. I'd already learned the stuff the year before. So that was just plain boring.
My aunt came back about 3 months later bringing my favorite cousin with her. She's still my favorite relative and I like her better than anyone else in the world. She's one of the few people in the world that if she calls and says she needs me I will drop everything I am doing and go to her immediately and do whatever I can to help.
For me to do that for anyone is beyond rare. It's right next to unheard of. I wouldn't even do that for my sister.
Somehow, in Denison I talked my parents into letting me get a BB gun. I don't quite know how that happened but I had it and it was going to get me into trouble with my mother and stepfather after a few months.
From my perspective Denison was a boring, boring place. I don't remember any teen center, bowling alley, roller skating rink or anything for kids to do. Not even a lake anywhere close by that I could get to. Just nothing.
I had my paper route, which was quite small compared to the one I had in Fairmont. Between the cash I'd stolen in Fairmont, the money I could steal from my drunken parents and the cigarettes I stole from both of them I didn't have much need for anything else. Oh, and I always shoplifted the BBs for my BB gun.
Heh, don't remember if I mentioned it before but my stepfather was a butcher so we always had great cuts of meat to eat. Unfortunately I was still required to do most of the cooking. It did come in handy when I moved out on my own tho.
Just a nothing place with nothing happening, ever.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Did I deserve to be abused and beaten.
Obviously the answer to that question has to be NO! No kid deserves to be abused, no matter what they did. What they do deserve is to be loved, cared for and cherished to the best of our ability and this countries ability. We fail miserably on both counts.
Was I a bad kid? Not really but there were times I did deserve some punishment. Lol, if I was the same kid now I'd be in therapy and on high doses of drugs for ADHD, ODD, PTSD and a ton of other things. I'd be medicated until I was compliant and fit societies standards of behavior. However I wouldn't be me.
Did I do some bad things when I was a kid? Sure did. The kid that lived behind my house used to hang out with me. Another kid we didn't particularly care for played with us now and then. D and I both had BB guns and K had done something that had made both of us pretty angry at him so we quit playing with him completely.
K wanted back in our good graces so we told him if we could use his back as a target for our BB guns we would play with him again. It was fall so he put on his big coat and we put a magazine inside his coat and then proceed to shoot him in the back at the magazine. However neither D or I could resist and we each shot him once in the butt.
Naturally when he got home his mother asked what happened and he ratted us out. My dad beat the hell out of me, broke my BB gun and I was grounded for life. Same with D. Another thing is D and I weren't allowed to play together anymore and K wasn't allowed to play with either of us.
Yes, it was a dumb thing to do, it was cruel and we deserved to be punished but we didn't deserve the beatings we both got. We didn't hurt K except when we shot him in the butt and we both knew it was wrong while we were doing it.
D and I used play with matches. We particularly liked the wooden farmer matches. We'd walk along the railroad tracks and light them but we were smart enough to make sure we kept them between the rails and never started a fire.
One day K begged us to come along with us so we let him. He kept throwing the matches in the grass and we both yelled at him not to be doing that. Eventually we started a grass fire and D and I both rolled our bodies over it trying to put it out. Singed off most of my hair and eyebrows.
We finally figured out we weren't going to be able to put it out so we ran to D's house and used the phone. D picked up the phone and hollered fire, fire, fire and slammed the phone back down. I picked up the phone and told the operator there was a fire by the railroad tracks. Yes, they still had real live operators back then.
After notifying the fire dept the operator said "What have you and D done now?" as it turns out the operator we got was D's oldest sister. So we were busted. Go beat again and forbidden to play with D and K again. They were building a new fertilizer plant by the tracks about 3 blocks away from where the fire started an it came very close to being burned down. That was the end of playing with matches.
No, I wasn't a perfect kid. Lol, you couldn't even see perfection from where I was but I sure didn't deserve the beatings I got for the dumbass things I did wrong. I'm not sure how I'd handle a kid today like I was back then but I do know that beating the kid wouldn't help the situation.
I did lots of other kid things wrong but those are the two worst I can remember. At least at the age of 8.
Was I a bad kid? Not really but there were times I did deserve some punishment. Lol, if I was the same kid now I'd be in therapy and on high doses of drugs for ADHD, ODD, PTSD and a ton of other things. I'd be medicated until I was compliant and fit societies standards of behavior. However I wouldn't be me.
Did I do some bad things when I was a kid? Sure did. The kid that lived behind my house used to hang out with me. Another kid we didn't particularly care for played with us now and then. D and I both had BB guns and K had done something that had made both of us pretty angry at him so we quit playing with him completely.
K wanted back in our good graces so we told him if we could use his back as a target for our BB guns we would play with him again. It was fall so he put on his big coat and we put a magazine inside his coat and then proceed to shoot him in the back at the magazine. However neither D or I could resist and we each shot him once in the butt.
Naturally when he got home his mother asked what happened and he ratted us out. My dad beat the hell out of me, broke my BB gun and I was grounded for life. Same with D. Another thing is D and I weren't allowed to play together anymore and K wasn't allowed to play with either of us.
Yes, it was a dumb thing to do, it was cruel and we deserved to be punished but we didn't deserve the beatings we both got. We didn't hurt K except when we shot him in the butt and we both knew it was wrong while we were doing it.
D and I used play with matches. We particularly liked the wooden farmer matches. We'd walk along the railroad tracks and light them but we were smart enough to make sure we kept them between the rails and never started a fire.
One day K begged us to come along with us so we let him. He kept throwing the matches in the grass and we both yelled at him not to be doing that. Eventually we started a grass fire and D and I both rolled our bodies over it trying to put it out. Singed off most of my hair and eyebrows.
We finally figured out we weren't going to be able to put it out so we ran to D's house and used the phone. D picked up the phone and hollered fire, fire, fire and slammed the phone back down. I picked up the phone and told the operator there was a fire by the railroad tracks. Yes, they still had real live operators back then.
After notifying the fire dept the operator said "What have you and D done now?" as it turns out the operator we got was D's oldest sister. So we were busted. Go beat again and forbidden to play with D and K again. They were building a new fertilizer plant by the tracks about 3 blocks away from where the fire started an it came very close to being burned down. That was the end of playing with matches.
No, I wasn't a perfect kid. Lol, you couldn't even see perfection from where I was but I sure didn't deserve the beatings I got for the dumbass things I did wrong. I'm not sure how I'd handle a kid today like I was back then but I do know that beating the kid wouldn't help the situation.
I did lots of other kid things wrong but those are the two worst I can remember. At least at the age of 8.
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