Knives and Water Towers

Shidler Water Tower

Now I know that no one knows anyone who would ever climbed up the water tower and spray paint their name or their class year.  And of course no one would risk their life or encourage anyone to do that.  And again there are probably laws against that and signs that say do not trespass.  And since anyone that did break the law and climb up the tower were under age at the time and the statutes of limitations has expired I would be interested to know who did climb up the water tower.  Any volunteers?  Please send your story via email or to the address on the right side of the blog.


Now if you did not do that and again assuming the statute of limitations for a crime are expired plus things being done was when you were a minor what other events would be worth coming clean about?

• Running a coyote up the flag pole -
• carrying a gun to school, like in your back window of the pickup
• carrying a knife - I think everyone did in my class
• putting a symbol using the hand on the overhead projector in Pablo's class
• pouring yellow green water on the floor during study hall

In fact I remember having knife throwing contest and as I remember it was AJ who threw a knife or had one thrown at him and it stuck in his cowboy boot and drew blood.  Perhaps someone could provide the names of the participants.  Anyway I thought it was a great game and played it hundreds of times and outside of this one incident no one was hurt and even a little blood was a good thing.  DON'T GO TRY THIS!

Oh ya, you should know that one of the real reasons you had to keep your knife sharp is we did two things with them as we were farmers and ranchers:
1. cut string on hay bales as you fed the cattle
2. when you castrated the calves you needed a sharp knife -
Question for the rookies:  when you castrate calves do you castrate all of them?  Do some research.


Another fun thing we did at school with our knives was trying to out do each other on who had the sharpest knife.  Jon Tanny Olsen was one of the best at keeping a sharp knife.  I remember him shaving hair on anyone's arm who would be open to the contest.  By the way did I mention the time Jon Tanny sat behind me in a class and was trying to get something off my desk without me knowing it and I stabbed his finger with my pencil.  Remember the statute of limitations has expired.  He had a pencil lead in his hand for years until they cut it out.

Well what did we learn:
a. playing with knives can be fun but dangerous
b. you always should be your sharpest (get it)
c. don't climb water towers, you might get paint on you

Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com

Go take a picture of a water tower and send it to me.
 Read a book:
The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels--A Love Story