DentonDoc wrote on Sep 11^th, 2020 at 5:08pm:

[quote author=MossBack link=1598976553/30#30 date=1599819491]HD , Please do not confuse a lowly edible apple with a youngsters high tech weaponry. Here is more than you want to know about the subject. MB   (You need to Login or Register Your projectiles seem rather benign. Growing up, I happened to live very near several vacant lots that had been eroded by rain runoff to create a series of "ditches," some of which were 4 feet or more deep.  They made for excellent concealment and some protection when engaged in "clod" fights.  By "clod" fights, I don't exactly mean dirt clots because with a little searching, you could usually find a vein of clay in the ditches.  After a rain the clay was malleable and could easily be shaped into a ball.  In preparation for a clod fight, you would fashion a number of projectiles and place them in the sun to dry for a day or two.  Not quite as hard a a brick, but close.  Sometimes, to speed up the manufacture process, rocks were placed in the center and clay wrapped around it.  It gave the projectile a nice heft.  In the heat of battle, you sometimes ran out of the projectiles with clay adornment and just went directly to the stash of rocks. If you were especially devilish, you could also go looking for pieces of petrified wood that was scattered about.  The trick was to find pieces with sharper edges and long enough to be partially imbedded in a clay ball. The fights generally ended shortly after blood was drawn.  Needless to say, there were almost no kids in the neighborhood that didn't have a scar or two from those skirmishes.  Stitches were generally not required. dd

   ;D ;D ;D

  My how things have changed. When I was a kid I was running barefoot thru a vacant lot and stepped on a dry stalk about the size of a lead pencil.

It punctured my heel and impeded itself about 4" deep. I limp home bleeding like a stuck pig. My Dad a old farm boy takes me in the garage and gets some Turpentine and a clean shop rag and cleans off the blood/dirt and says "this is nothing, I'll take care of it". He grabs a pair of needle nose pliers, tells me to bite down on this rag and he pulls it out. Put's some turpentine in one of those little bulbs you use to check the acid in a battery and squirts it up into the hole.

Did that a couple of times and then slapped some farmers salve on it, Dad said it worked good on animals and humans.  :-? ;D ;D

Got some gauze from my Mom and then wrapped my heel in DUCT tape and said " Did you LEARN anything today?"

  I said I should wear my tennis shoes when running in fields. He smiled and sent me on my way.

We use to have BB gun fights in the state forest across the street. Rule #1 you could shoot anyone above the shoulders. That didn't last long.

Every kid in the neighborhood that had a BB gun had welts all over their bodies and wore them as a sign of pride.

Nowadays we'd all be in juvenile detention/therapy and our parents would be fighting endless lawsuits.  ;) ;D :P