7 thoughts on “And shared the water troughs with the livestock.

  1. I was stung by every type of bee, wasp, hornet, scorpion, ant, and centipede known to exist during my outdoorsy youth. Now I don’t even pay attention to them. Got stung by some wasps last summer when I disturbed their nest and didn’t even realize it at first. Barely felt it. I’ve also become desensitized to poison oak and poison ivy. I can wallow in it. When I was a Scout leader I used to warn the kids not to follow me because I don’t pay any attention to that stuff. I also learned how to pull cactus spines out of the skin with duct tape. Not trying to say I’m tougher than anyone else, just saying kids ought get out there and take a few small risks and get used to the world as it is.

  2. My mother always told us we’d eat a peck of dirt before we die. I think I got my quota by the time I was 10, most of it via face plants.

  3. I can relate to Mikey, except my cactus thorns were South West jumping cactus. I added in a lot of road/dirt rash from every form of down hill racer we could fab/jerry rig/mickey mouse together. Sometime we would wear a WWll US helmet and an over sized field jacked. Then motorcycles and my first emergency room visit at 17. First stitches at 5, now it gets butterflies and tape,
    There was a country song awhile back, Bucky Covington, A Different World…(((They))) stole that from us.

      • Just BARELY brushed against it in New Mexico when I was about 9, not paying attention, about 3-4 attached segment attached themselves to my calf…it got my attention!
        2nd time, East County, San Diego, rolling hills, chaparral, drifted a little off the dirt road dirt biken’ and whammo! the four fingers on on my left hand are pinned together and to the handle bar grip. Friends used my tool kit pliers to free me up enough for me to finish the removal process. The segments seem to jump off they, release so easily.
        Yeah Bear, awesome memories.

Comments are closed.