Both Mark and Dustin seemed to have a natural predilection towards mischief.
One summer (or was it two consecutive summers?) Mark was stung in the eye by a bee in a haystack behind Grandpa Gid's shed. In retrospect I have no idea why he had hay bales back there. I mean, he had a nice garden, but hay? Who knows.
Then the summer that all the family was at the BIG 4th of July Allen/Tucker picnic, Dustin got reamed in the eye by a projectile from a 3-man slingshot in the parking lot of Almacs.
I know this of course because a little girl with no little girl cousins is left to hang with the boys; pretending as though she enjoys killing small animals, and throwing spray painted baby dolls down the cellar steps.
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story thief. that is so a story i retold recently. HOWEVER....i remember it being mark who was fwacked in the eye by the three boy slingshot, and dustin the one stung in the eyeball...and i remember being the only girl cousin within spitting distance of Almacs.
WHAT?!
Were there perhaps...duplicate incidents involving different boys?
Dustin was the one who got it from the Slingshot. I remember this because it happened because they were trying to operate the device with only 2 boys. Dustin leaned his face too close. Of course, I'm sure Dustin would have to confirm this.
I know 100% that the bee sting was Mark...because I felt oh so sorry for him. It was one of the few times as kids when he didn't seem so tough. And it was just he and I behind the shed.
This is for Barry. ( Just in case Joan lets him read this) :
pre·di·lec·tion [pred-l-ek-shuhn, preed-] noun a tendency to think favorably of something in particular; partiality; preference: a predilection for Bach. [Origin: 1735–45;
—Synonyms bias, inclination, leaning, liking, weakness, predisposition, prepossession.
Ahhh the childhood memories... Oddly enough this was a story that was hard for me to tell for a long time - because in order to "re-tell" it I had to essentially "re-live" it and when it got to a certain part i.e. the part where I said "I have an idea!" I would struggle to finish the story.
As Valencia tells it and I 're-tell' it - There were a few of us who headed down the street with a 3-person water balloon slingshot that day. If my memory is correct I would say it was myself, Ollie, Mark and Ollie's sister Annette. I noticed that one of the local shops or markets in the distance had what looked like a paper-thin 'awning' if you will - and I thought if executed correctly we could launch a water balloon at it and it would rip through the awning and shower the people under it (I know great idea huh?)
When I proposed the idea Mark was all for it but Ollie was hesitant and ultimately declined to participate - citing something about wanting to be a “policeman” or something when he got older? "Yeah Right buddy" I said. So that left us with a 3-man water balloon sling shot and only "2-man" left to operate it. I decided to raise my arms in a "Y" shape to form the sling shot "Frame" if you will, and held one end of the rubber hose in each hand, and then Mark would pull the sling back and fire it. If you note however, that if my arms are up in the "Y" formation (See also YMCA Dance) then you'll also note that my "head" (which includes Face and Eyes) would logically be right in the middle - i.e. in the path of the "shot". For some reason even at this point it still sounded like a good idea to me.
Since the "target" was far away it would take a nice big tug on the sling-shot in order to hit it . Unfortunately however when Mark pulled the sling shot back - it in turn pulled my arms down almost to the point where my arms were outstretched right out in front of me (see also a cartoon-esk reenactment of someone sleep walking) – So, yes (surprisingly enough) when he let go it was an instant "CCCCRRRAAAACK" as the water balloon blasted me in the eye. Instantly everything went black and I dropped to my knees. Even though I could neither see nor stand, I could hear and I recall clearly Annie hovering over me laughing and saying “Get up you P&s$y!” and Ollie in the distance saying “See I told you so” and Mark saying “That was awesome!”
I don’t think I re-gained sight for quite a while and after reading the story this morning, in retrospect, I think it’s a miracle there weren’t any lasting effects. Or were there?
I recall, it was Ben who wisely stood off to the side.
He was the one who told me the detailed story while trying to suppress a giggle.
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