Hellion Years post #2

This is my second post covering one summer after my father passed away and my mother worked two jobs.  In rural Arkansas, children over the age of ten were allowed to babysit children younger. Now days they have to go to a child care center but when I was growing up, those were almost non existent (only in large cities). Anyway, we borrowed an old wagon and took it up the hill from our house riding it down. All five of us thought it was a thrill and fun. My younger brother told my mother when she came home what we did and me with my older brother Robert were in trouble for doing so. Mom was quick to use a switch to teach us the error of our ways. Robert and I decided to teach Carl a lesson for telling Mom anything we did during the day and getting us in trouble. Carl had one advantage over Robert and I, he could run faster than us even though we were bigger and stronger, so we devised a plan to capture him. The next day, we borrowed the wagon again. Carl stayed away from us, leery of what we might do, so we all rode down the hill like the day before. Carl didn't ride the first time but seeing all the fun his sister's had riding down the hill with Robert and I steering it with ropes, he joined in. Soon, he forgot all about staying apart from us, he even helped push the wagon back up the hill for his fateful trip. Robert and I grabbed him taking him over to the rear wagon wheel and had our sister Mary bring the ropes from the steering. We tied him to the wagon wheel never thinking about what if his hand went under the steel rim, it could be broken or cut off if pinched between a rock and the rim. Once, we had him securely tied, we had Mary move the rock placed in front of the wheel to keep it in place. Normally, we let the wagon start moving by gravity, nice and slow. Sometimes after Robert removed the rock, we would have to start rocking the wagon to get it to move. This time, both Robert and I pushed it with all our might. Moving slow like normal, the wagon would follow the ruts in the road down to the flat area. that was why it had been easy to steer with the ropes. Now, there were no ropes or anyone steering, plus we had it going faster when it hit the ruts. Instead it left the road and headed into an empty field. Empty of houses or trees that was. All awhile Carl was screaming at us promising us payback. Lucky for us and him, it rolled to a stop before hitting any houses or buildings on the other side of the field. Unlucky for Carl, it stopped in the middle of a brier patch (blackberries) with him almost upside down. Robert and I left him there, taking our sisters to the neighbors so we could make the two mile walk into town to get our newspapers to deliver. I think he was still there when Mom came home from her daytime job to make our dinner. We told our sisters we would beat the crap out of them if they untied him. My mother had a just punishment for us when we came home from delivering our papers. read about in my next Hellion Years post #3- follow my blogs at  http://booksbyagmoye.blogspot.com  or at http://lightningbooksbyagmoye.wordpress.com

Talk back, I'm listening and send a copy of this or re-blog it to your friends. They might get a chuckle out of it as well.