6 STILTS

Many of us men, when growing up, couldn't grow up fast enough. I mean, all of my friends and I wanted to be "taller." I remember measuring myself on a wooden door frame about once a week, to see what progress I was making.
One day when I was about eleven years old, we got the idea of building stilts so we could walk around a few feet higher off the ground. We found a neighbor kid who's dad had made him a pair of stilts and we all tried them out.

When I got home, I decided that I would make my very own pair of stilts. They would be taller than anyone else's and everyone would say, "Wow! Look at Ken's stilts. Look how tall he is. He is so neat!"

I don't even know where we got the lumber, but for some reason we had a pile of wood in our back yard. It was probably brought home by my step-father for our wood stove. Fortunately there were two 6 foot, 2X2's in the pile and some short pieces of 2X4 for foot rests.

I measured up a little over 3 feet from the bottom and marked the long poles. I then took the short pieces of 2X4 and cut a triangle foot piece for each stilt. The foot pieces were flat of the top and angled on the bottom for better nailing. From trying out my neighbor friend's stilts, I had learned that it was sometimes hard to keep one's feet on the footrests. When your foot slipped off the footrest, you fell off everything.

To solve the problem, I decided to make straps that would hold my feet on the footrests. I found an old inner tube and cut some straps from the thick part of the tube. These I nailed to the footrests with enough room for my feet to slip in and out.

With a little sandpaper, I smoothed off the 2X2's where I would be holding my stilts as I walked. Usually it is best to lean against a tree or wall to climb into a pair of stilts. Then you can push off and begin balancing and walking.

I was a little nervous about walking with straps because if one falls forward it is hard to get your feet out of the straps so you can catch yourself. Being an ingenious young man, and being alone, so no one could see me, I decided to drag an old mattress from off the porch and lay it on the ground in front of me. I reasoned that if I fell I would land on the mattress instead of the ground.

With great anticipation and excitement I climbed into my new stilts. My intention was to get my balance, step up on the mattress, walk over it and begin walking around the yard. To get out of a pair of stilts it is always best to lean back and step out backwards. My heart was pounding as I stepped forward, caught the edge of the mattress with the bottom of the stilt and fell helplessly forward and flat on my face with my feet firmly stuck in the straps of the footrests.

I only bounced once or twice. I thought, "Well, at least the straps work." Fortunately it did not hurt . . . too much. As any eleven year old "stilts commander" would do, I got up, brushed myself off and moved the mattress back on the porch.

After several tries of not leaning forward too much, I began to get the hang of it. Soon I was walking all over the neighborhood. It was fun walking across small streams and through mud puddles without getting wet. I did, however, learn to watch out for gopher holes. It is awkward when one of your stilts sinks a foot or so straight down into a gopher hole. All of my friends were impressed with my "tall" stilts and soon everyone copied my idea.

LESSON LEARNED

Learning to walk on stilts taught me a good lesson. If we want to go around the neighborhood and appear taller and have others look up to us, we should just be a good friend and help others have fun also. All of us grew taller anyway as we got older and we didn't need those stilts to have people look up to us.

Also those who try hard, never give up and share with others have the most fun.