i wasn't wearing glasses and lucky it wasn't a 'pump'.
the 'hastily prepared story' went like this, "i fell on a stick while running in the woods!"
the real story! i stood up from behind the stump to say 'let's go home-or such'. (we had just swapped guns, it was my turn to be plummeted! i guess i realized it wasn't fun anymore because the daisy-lever action was much more powerful than the six-shooter i was using.) anyway, i caught a bb, right in the eye, with a blink! (almost sounds like catching it with your teeth! how unbelieveable!) i fell to my knees. my buddy 'the shooter' came to see 'the damage'! upon his inspection, the bb fell to the ground--honest!
the walk out of the woods was frantic worrying about the bb guns being confiscated!
the er doctor questioned why there wasn't any dirt or trash from the limb in or around my eye (see above 'the hastily prepared story!'). i remember lying on the table looking up at him repeating the fabricated story, he just mumbled--my parents just mumbled and i was sent home to see the eye doctor monday.
it was a saturday. later that day or early sunday there was increasing pain. i was admitted to the hospital for nine days for rest, no phone, no tv, few visitors. the pain was from bleeding behind the eye that could detach the retina. laser surgery was experimental in those days. i was super lucky the bleeding stopped and the swelling went away.
i had eye doctor appointments for years after that multiple times a year. thirty some odd years later while out to eat, my parents sitting across the table, i got the nerve to tell them i had lied. they non chalantly said in unisome "we know". so i guess my buddy told the truth! wow, i don't think i have ever let my kids get away with lying. gee, what's the damage done...!
hey, anyone remember the difference when sling shots began using rubber tubing instead of strips of inner tubes. oh well...that's another story.
i too, miss the days when dogs ran free, bikes got banged up from use, balls were patched and used til they wore out, gloves were re-laced, there were enough players to have two teams-in most sports, creek or lake water, we played in, was able to be consumed, forts were almost real...and on and on!
again, thanks for the memories!
mike