The earliest encounter with stones I can remember was when I was about six. My cousin and I were down in a creek bed near my house when my cousin decided we should play “war”. I had no choice but to comply. We had no proper toys for playing “war” with us so he improvised. His weapon of choice was the grenade which was about one-half pound granite stones (glacial till) found along the creek. He immediately began lobbing those things at me. I dodged behind a pile of dirt and he continued the barrage . Fortunately his arm tired quickly. It got quiet and I waited . After a while I decided to take peek. I immediately had celestial event . I had no idea you could see stars on a sunny summer afternoon. When that was over I found myself on my hinder parts with a rather large “knot on the noggin” which I had to explain to my father. He figured that since neither the stone nor my head broke that my head was at least as hard as a piece of granite. It seems to me that he periodically reminded of that fact during my formative years. In later years I occasionally would tell him I came by that particular trait honestly. Not to worry it made him smile.
Some years later as a lad in church I was given booklet of some kind to “enhance” my “knowledge” of scripture . (It may be worth noting here Kayte and I went to different churches together and had essentially the same “spiritual” training in our youth) …back to the enhancements to my “knowledge”… The story contained in that little book was of David & Goliath. Contained in that story was a detailed description of the sling and how it was made(with Pictures).Bear in mind this is the implement a young boy used to take down a guy roughly 9 feet tall. So what these well meaning educators did is give a bunch of 12 year old boys (and girls) a blueprint and complete instructions on how to construct a deadly weapon. Now I ask you “What Were They Thinking?” I immediately set about find the materials to construct one. A little of this and a little of that and Wah-La my first deadly weapon.(note I left out the instructions just in case a 12 year old should read this). I had it for a while and got good at using it. One day I was fishing in the creek below our house I found some very round, very heavy stones (more glacial till 
)and thought “these ought to really fly!”…….and did they ever. We lived on the edge of a small town on a hill. It was about 300 yards to the nearest house so figured it was pretty safe to sling one that direction. Wrong!!! I heard that stone hit something metal and hollow. The only thing I could think of that would make that sound was a sheet metal garage which was about another 100 yards beyond that house. The garage was a truck garage for working on semi tractors& trailers so it was bigger than Dad’s barn. To make that sound I would have to sling a stone nearly 1/4 of a mile and hit essentially the side of a barn. I let fly another one and “twang”…… yep that’s the only thing it could be. I very quietly went to the house.
Off on a tangent: When I was a teen my two younger sisters thought our Mother was a witch. In our social life and general dealings with people and situations she would advise us. If you do “such and such” this will happen……and it did. Even in situations where she had no control or influence……..it still happened. My sisters were convinced she made those things happen. Now I thought the same thing for a whole different reason. In the years that I presented “a clear and present danger” to myself and nearly everything else within 400 yards everything that:
1. could propel objects (slings, catapults, crude crossbows and the like)
2. was mildly to extremely reactive or explosive
3.was potentially flammable
flat out disappeared ……gone……..never to be seen again. I was sure she practiced some magic art.
You have to understand when we were children they had really low key programs on TV like “Bewitched”. TV is one thing, but when Mother starts doing things like that it messes with your head. Although I never saw her wiggle her nose.
Things remained quiet through my teen years at least as far as stones were concerned. Although I did have a little trouble with the getting “stoned ” thing (it was the sixties). I got “stoned” when I was about six remember. Cool….it was not, W…O…W…….well yea Wow it hurt, mind altering experience …….there was a celestial event inside my head, and brain damage……..nobody has ever been quite sure about that part.
After relatively normal teen years in which stones played only a minor roll that being I tended to collect unusual and or pretty ones, and yes I had a box of rocks. Just after I hit twenty I went into the Murphy years. You know Murphy’s Law . For two years:”Whatever could go wrong did go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way”. During this period I bought a motorcycle. I had not yet grasped concept of Murphy. One day I found about a half dozen very round, one-half inch diameter stones (more glacial till) with my motorcycle tires. Motorcycles tend to go from unstable to completely unstable under those conditions. I had read the manual that came with the motorcycle. There was no mention of an auto-eject system but it most certainly had one. Four days in the hospital, twelve weeks in a cast, six months to get three locked joints and an atrophied left arm in working order, I was good as new. I fixed the motorcycle (that only took a couple hours) and rode it for a month so I was sure it wasn’t fear that made me sell it. I was beginning to grasp Murphy.
In 1990 I bought the property on which I now live. About a year later I started picking up pretty stones in the yard. The prior occupant had dug a pond with a bulldozer. This left major patches of soil void of vegetation and a lot of rocks showing.
One day as I was walking across the yard and something caught my eye. It was the piece of rose quartz you see along the border of the web site. That piece of stone has all sharp edges so it wasn’t rolled here in it’s present form by the glaciers. It was part of a larger piece. So some where within 100 yards of my house, under the ground, is a larger piece of Western Pennsylvania rose quartz and I can’t find it. I think….. Somebody…. is teasing me!
Oh, my time spent in the hall of “higher” education I was a psychology/sociology major. But after a year or so I decided counseling would not be a good job for a reclusive introvert.
As for “fast wheels and big engines” would you like to guess which of one us drove a Pontiac GTO and which one drove a Ford Pinto? Hmmmmmm……….
Enough for now. I would guess probabilities are high that Kayte will have some comment to make about me but “Time will tell.”
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