Welding Rods
Chapter 11 from Bill Owens' upcoming book "Chicken Heads"
One summer, I was bored, and I went into my Dad’s tool shed and found some welding rods. I used a hammer and chipped the flux off some of the rods. Then, I filed the end to a point, and on the other end, I tied a chicken feather. I now had an 18-inch- throwing arrow. In the 1980s, the US Government banned throwing darts because hundreds of children had been injured or killed by lawn darts. My 18-inch arrow-throwing dart was just as deadly.
For target practice, I threw the arrows at the side of the barn. Then I threw a few arrows and watched them stick into the roof of the barn.
I couldn’t leave the arrows sticking in the roof where Dad could see them. So, I climbed onto the barn and retrieved my arrows. Then I remembered that walking on the roof of the barn was one of Dad’s “no-nos” as it made the roof leak.
It then dawned on me! Dad would find out, so I hid the arrows.
That winter at supper, Dad asked me if I had been on the roof of the barn. I said, “No.”
Another time, I took the hand ax, the one used for killing chickens, and pretended I was Davy Crockett, Indian killer.
In the movies, an Indian could throw an ax and stick it in the back of the cowboy. I wanted to be like an Indian and stick the ax into the side of the barn. I must have bounced the ax off the barn 50 times before giving up.
It was a good thing I didn’t play with matches.
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