The tale about me trying to strike a match with the 22 cal. rifle brought to mind a couple of other episodes involving matches. Going back in time to 1935 when I was 5-6 years old; we're at the place where we lived on the west side of Love Valley. For Christmas my older brother Donal and I got cap pistols. Of course, we had a ball playing cowboys and Indians, as well as good guys and bad guys. But our fun was somewhat deminished when we ran out of caps for the cap pistols. So we simulated the shooting by making a noise with our mouths. Then Donal discovered that he could take one of the kitchen matches and remove the striking tip off the match using his teeth. He would then place the match tip in the cap pistol. This was good for one shot for each match tip and really slowed down the games. Donal then decided that it was more fun to sit on the old engine block that was used as a step for the front porch and use a hammer to pop the match tips. Well, it was fun until we realized that we had used up a whole box of matches and Mother had none left for her to use to start a fire in the cook stove. And when she discovered what we had done ... The fun was REALLY over !! Another incident which involved just me was during the summer when my Dad's younger brother, Glen was living with us. Uncle Glen had a pencil sharpener attached to the wall near his bed. This "contraptioin" fascinated me. But it was "off limits" to me. But as things worked out there came a day when when everyone was out working and I was at the house alone; so I got some sticks and sharpened them and was generally having fun until I stuck a match, head first, into the pencil sharpener and turned the handle. Well ... The house didn't burn down. In fact I managed to frantically bring the flash fire under contorl after the pencil shavings and the plastic cover were consumed. So they were the only things that did burn ... Other than my rear end ... after Dad got home and learned what I had done He used his razor strap to whip me and I think it was the worse whipping I ever received. A hard way to learn a lesson. Thurmon