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President,
Senior Scribes
Dumb Things I Did as
a Kid
By Delbert Blickenstaff, M.D.
Looking back now I think that we three brothers were at least half
monkey, because we climbed everything we could. Every tree was a
challenge. And we loved roof tops. Starting at about age
ten years my twin brother Robert and I climbed up on about every house
we lived in. In 1929 in Kewana, Indiana, we twins and our younger
brother Harold climbed on the roof and our mother caught us. She
told Dad, of course, and he told us to go to the woodshed. We
knew what was in store for us and so Robert stuck a shingle down inside
his pants. Harold and I were paddled first with a flimsy stick
which stung a little. But we couldn’t keep from giggling because
we couldn’t wait to see what would happen when Dad got to Robert.
What did happen was that Dad’s stick broke when it hit the shingle and
we roared with laughter. Dad took the shingle out and paddled
Robert with that. I think he was laughing too, and I don’t think
the paddling did any of us any good.
When we lived in Knox Robert and I were Freshmen in high school.
During the winter months the town did not clean the snow off the
streets, so we kids had fun on our sleds and ice skates. I
remember hanging on to the back bumper of a slow moving car on my sled,
with the slush hitting me in the face. Sometimes a string of kids
on skates would grab on to the back of a car and be pulled around a
corner. The last kid would usually get slung up into someone’s
back yard. That was fun, but it’s a wonder we didn’t get hurt.
There was a small river running through the north side of Knox, and in
the summer we went swimming. We had a contest to see who could
swim the farthest downstream from the diving board. I held my
breath and swam as far as I could until I had to come up for air.
Unfortunately I came up right under a big lady who was just floating
along. I thought I’d die before I got out from under her. I
don’t know who won the contest.
Robert and I were Juniors when we lived in Hamlet, and we had a friend
who drove a Model A Ford. One summer day we decided to drive out
to the country to pick up a load of firewood. We hitched a farm
wagon with side boards to the Model A with just a pin. Our
friend, Ralph Grace, drove carefully and all was well until we were
returning with the load of wood. Robert was riding on top of the
wood and I was riding with Ralph. I looked back and noticed that
the wagon was coming along about twenty feet behind the car.
About that time the wagon tongue dropped down and the wagon overturned
into a side ditch. I yelled and Ralph stopped immediately.
We ran back and threw the wagon off. Fortunately Robert was down
in the ditch so that he was protected from the weight of the
wagon. He had some bruises from the wood, but otherwise he was
OK. I’m sure that we three brothers had a troupe of guardian
angels watching over us.
Delbert Blickenstaff, M. D.
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