AN OFF-THE-WALL AMUSEMENT DEVICE

By Coy Jones

I can’t remember why we would do such a thing.

Across the street was an elderly mother who lived with her adult son, Merle, who was about 50 years old at the time. He had been severely injured in World War II and had partial paralysis. He had overcome an alcohol addiction and enjoyed visiting with the neighborhood kids on their front porch. We did odd jobs and ran errands for them.

Their house, like all the others in the neighborhood, was old and not in the best of repair. Unpainted clapboard, the wood was fragile. The front porch post was a perfect anchor for the rubber rope. It just invited a mischievious prank. In a way, I guess my brother Jerry and I were obligated to oblige.

About dusk one summer evening, we tied that darn rope to their front porch post, stretched it to it’s limit, all the way past our front yard, down the side of our house, and let ‘er go.

The sound of that rope against the front wall of that old frame house is still with me. No punk rocker has ever reached the decibel level that ricocheted up and down the street that night and I’m quite sure Mammy and Merle took that sound with them to their graves. I just hope it didn’t hasten their trip but I do know it nearly scared them to death right then and there. Scared me, too !

I remember now, though, how it happened. My brother Jerry wanted to do it !

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