Flashback Friday # 127

The Hornet's Nest

Greetings one & all. Welcome to another post that will leave you wondering how I survived my childhood. When I look back at the dangerous things I did as a kid, sometimes I wonder myself.

But survived I did (if not this would have been written by a ghostwriter). When you are a kid, seldom do you think of the ramifications of your actions. Something that seems perfectly logical to you, could scare the dickens out of a rational human being.

When I was 13 or 14, I remember a hornet's nest hanging from the eaves of the house that the Pershings used to live in. While watching it one day, along with two of the Crook boys (Sneaky & Rotten) I made mention that having a hornets nest around could be dangerous. Someone could get stung. Someone (I don't remember who) came up with the bright idea of knocking it down.

How do you knock down a hornet's nest without getting stung? If we used a stick, it would land at our feet. the hose didn't reach that far. How about throwing rocks at it. We would be far enough away to make a quick get away should we succeed.

We gathered a bucketful of rocks. We moved into position. We were about 30 feet away from the nest and it was about 8 feet up in the air. We made sure that there was nothing in the path to my front door which was about 20 feet from where we were.

We each grabbed a rock. We took careful aim. We all tossed. We all missed.

We then got the rocks and our nerves ready again. Again we took aim. Again we lobbed our projectiles. Wham, a direct hit. The nest fell from the eave where it hung.

A soon as I saw the rock hit, I shouted "RUN!!", and hightailed it toward my house. Sneaky wasn't far behind. Rotten, however waited until the nest hit the ground before he started running. He did make it into the house unscathed, but we asked him why he didn't take off when we did. "I just wanted to make sure it actually came down" was his reply. To that I say "DUH".

We watched out the window as the hornets swarmed around the fallen nest. it was quite a while before they left. I know I wasn't in any hurry to go over there and check things out. Sneaky & Rotten hung out at my house until their Mom called them to come home. The next day, we checked out the nest. I had never seen a hornet's nest that close before. I hope to never seen one that close again.