If You Abuse it, You Lose it. -Twenty Nine

Twenty Nine

Rhea won the bet. It took the adults SIX days to make their plans and another THREE days to be ready to leave.

They spent the time planting Coon’s guerilla garden. But also made sure their chores were caught up. The boys were griping not only because they weren’t going but also because they were going to have to do the chores that the girls usually did while they were gone!

Sometimes life isn’t fair. And sometimes the girls get to have the adventures!

There was one wedding left before they were to leave and it was beautiful until the report came that FEMA had showed up and supposedly wanted to do a census. Something didn’t quite smell right about the FEMA group.

All the kids volunteered to go through the woods and set up sniper points. Since they all could pretty much move through the woods without a sound, they knew they could get into positions that would be of benefit. All of the kids had a silent hand language that they could communicate with and all would be within sight of each other.

Don and Clark over rode Ruth and Glenda and let the kids go. Ruth and Glenda hadn’t put up too much of a fuss since they both knew that the kids were very well trained. But being “mom’s”; that instinct to protect their young was still strong. And despite the “new” times, where the young HAD to grow up fast, it still didn’t mean that they had to like it or that it was right.

The kids disappeared into the woods, moving towards the road while the rest of the adults prepared to answer the FEMA group by CB.


Poppy was in a talkative mood today. These were the best days because he would tell tales of his younger days. This story was one I hadn’t heard before.

“Did I ever tell you about the time I set fire to an Air Force Base?”

“No” I breathlessly replied, already spell bound knowing that Poppy’s story was gonna be a good one. Now I do have to say that I already know that Poppy wasn’t always the angel and wonderfully perfect granddad that he is now.

Poppy began….
“i'll tell ya how i almost burned the flightline and the airplanes up - we were the night guards supposed to be guarding these 42 lines of airplanes 6 to 8 jets on a line - at that time i believe the f 104 - f-100 and f-105 were the planes - on each plane there are several cartridges a little bit bigger than a shot gun shell - these are used to eject the canopy, seat and the pilot - well there were always boxes of em laying around on the flight line to replace the ones in the planes to make sure they are fresh cartridges - we would cut the end of them open they had clear plastic see thru end covers and take out the pellets about as big as rabbit doo doo and touch a cigarette to them and they would start to sparkle quickly - we would then throw them at each other or just throw them to watch em sparkle and arc thru the air - well on each air base beside the flight line there is a huge 30 foot across ditch about 30 foot deep to use in an emergency for dumping fuel or sliding a burning plane into - the ditch at nellis is about a mile and a half long and was full of tumble weeds and some how some jet fuel had inadvertently been spilled in it - we did not know this at the time - i threw one of the sparking pellets into the ditch and vrooom a nice blaze shot up into the night sky - i almost died right then - well on each line of airplanes there is a giant fire extinguisher about 500 pounds worth of co 2 - they are all on rollers - there were 6 of us guards - we all had 7 lines of planes to walk around in and guard - we used 14 of those fire extinguishers to put the fire out - this was on a sat night and there was no flying scheduled and the control tower did not have any body in it - we put all the extinguishers back empty and swore never to tell anyone because we would have been sent to leavenworth for at least 10 years - we got away with it but there was a small investigation and we all lied about it”

Wow! I was stunned: Poppy had lied!!! Not that I could blame him, wooooooweeee! He sure would have been in a mess of trouble!!!