3 THE SLING

On another occasion, in Old Shasta, a new "craze" swept through our community. At church we had learned the story of David and Goliath. Soon every boy in town, as well as some of the girls, were making slings so they could be like David.
I was never one to think small. My step-father had shown my brother and I how to make sling shots out of rubber tubes and manzanita crotches. A manzanita sling shot was the Cadillac of sling shots. There always seemed to be plenty of old rubber tubes around and plenty of old leather shoes to contruct our "weapons of war."

However, a sling shot is not the same thing as a "sling." Yep, the sling that David used was the ultimate of all slings.

This is a sling shot . This is the kind of sling David used.
It is very powerful and strong.

One day a friend of mine and I decided to make a "giant"sling. One that would shoot, not just small rocks, but boulders. We found a large old tire tube and cut 3 inch rubber strips that were about 3 feet long. We cut a huge piece of leather from the tongue of an old shoe to make a pouch to hold our rocks. Then we tied it all together. On the end where we held the rubber strands, we wrapped these with some string and tape so as to give us a good grip.
There was no place close to our homes where we felt like we had room to try out this weapon of all weapons. With the excitement that only a couple of 5th grade inventors can generate, we decided to take our experiment to the school yard.

The schoolhouse was located on a very large rectangular lot. There was also a small community church on the East end of the lot. Both buildings were situated on the back side of the lot next to a dirt street.

We walked out onto the play grounds. There was no cement or asphalt. The play ground was also dirt and rocks."Rocks!" That's what we were looking for! We tried out our sling with a few small rocks and were amazed at how far they flew through the air. The rubber straps stretched and had a springing action to them.

We had lined ourselves up to launch our rocks the long way of the play grounds. We were giggling and joking around and feeling very successful and important. It was then that I spied "the rock!" As my eyes rested upon it, my heart skipped a beat and images of a great warrior flashed through my imagination. With nervous anticipation I reached down and carefully lifted "the rock" from it's resting place.

I remember wiping the dirt from this rock, off onto my levi strauss jeans. As I wiped off the red dirt, the rock revealed it's white smoothe, rounded surface. I estimated it to weigh about a half pound. "It was perfect!"

"Let me have the sling," I commanded. My request was low and powerful. My friend handed the sling to me and moved behind me and squatted down. I place "the rock" into the pouch and folded the leather around it. I could not contain my smile and it just seemed to force itself over my entire face, from ear to ear. I wrapped the loose ends of the sling around my finers in just the right way and prepared to launch "the rock."

As young boys, we did not know the proper way to "sling" a rock and just swung the sling over our heads in a windmill fashion. This was the method that I used on that memorable day. Around and around the sling went. The faster I swung it the more the sling whirled above my head at a tremendous speed with a noise of "swoosh," "swoosh," "swoosh."

I aimed and fired! I espected the large rock to go flying straight down to the other end of the play grounds, but . . . this rock had a mind of it's own. Instead of going straight, the rock flew off to my left. I looked over just in time to see the mother of all rocks, sail off the play grounds, up towards the main Highway and slam into the door of a passing automobile. "KAWOOMB!"

The sound was deafening as "the rock" stuck in the door, making a large hole. Now. . . no one needs to tell two nine year old boys when they are in trouble! With visions of spending the rest of our lives behind bars, we took off for the bushes as fast as our trembling legs would carry us. The car weaved and came to a screeching halt. A man jumped out and was yelling words that were new to me as we disappeared into the manzanita bushes. We didn't stop until we reached home.

I personally spent the rest of the day expecting the police to show up any minute. No one ever came by and my friend and I never told anyone else. We avoided being seen along the main Highway through town for several weeks. We thought the man was waiting for us behind some building or telephone pole or bush.

LESSON LEARNED

As I look back on that experience, I learned that when one plays with dangerous toys, one should first learn how to use them in a safe way.