You'll Shoot Yourself in the EYE!!!

L-R My brother David, My dad, My mom and me

When I was about 12 years old, a bunch of the neighborhood boys decided in their collective wisdom to have some fun by doing battle with BB guns.  There were about six of us---three on each side.  We armed ourselves with our BB guns and went down to the creek which we had designated as the battleground.

Now, you know right away that nothing good was going to come of this.  My brother, who was five years younger than me, desperately wanted to "play" with the big boys, so we armed him with a BB gun and told him he could be a member of the opposing team.

Long story short---while we were engaged in battle, I looked up just in time to see a speeding BB headed right for my head.  I didn't even have time to blink before it struck me in the right eye.  Of course, I had never considered the possibility that I might be hit in the eye.  You could say I was not a deep thinker---or, as my dad would later remark, you might say I was stupid---which I certainly was.

Photo from "A Christmas Story"---"You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"

Anyway, we rushed home and my mom immediately took me to the doctor.  It turned out that I was going to be ok, and that no lasting damage was done, except to my butt when my father got home from work and found out what had happened.

My mom was also livid.  She screamed at my 7 year old brother, "HOW COULD YOU SHOOT YOUR BROTHER?"  He looked at her and said, "I dunno, mom---I guess it was a lucky shot."