Pat Conwell and Kenny Kelsey -throwing rotten eggs and rocks

This might look like an innocent young man but I would have to declare him guilty by all evidence accumulated and presented in a court of law.  His name is Kenny Kelsey and he is known for getting in rock throwing contest, having a bull dog named Boog (not to be confused with his buddy Boog Williams) and throwing rotten eggs.

My mother was the den mother for Boy Scouts (founded in Pawhuska, yes it is a fact) for I believe it was pack 45 and Kenny was a member along with my brother, Larry, and Joe Conner (he became an Eagle Scout),  Richard Hustead (not a member of this pack but he was a boy scout in Shidler, the only thing I can remember about him was he had two cute sisters), Pat Conwell and a bunch of others (Not including me which has always been devastating to my self confidence, just kidding).  Now these boys, all older than me, use to come over for meetings in a Den House my dad built for them to have their club meetings.

It was actually pretty cool because periodically there would be a big party at our house.  There would be giant bon fires where dad would cut down a tree and drag it over to near the club house and pile on the brush and wood.  We roasted weenies and toasted marsh mellows and drank hot cocoa.  Fantastic!  Sometimes they would cook by burying vegetables, potatoes and hamburger in aluminum foil in the hot coals created by the fire.  It was called hobo stew and as dad would say, "that was good eaten".

Anyway,  back to the criminals which is really Pat Conwell and  Kenny (I could not find a picture of Pat).  The entire boy scout club would go looking around the barn collecting eggs that chickens laid in the barns full of hay and not in the chicken house (another story).  Then the war would begin and Kenny and Pat were particularly good.  I remember Kenny sneaking up on the North West corner of the big barn next to the dairy barn and he was about two feet from me.  Of course I was four years younger and at a disadvantage which did not bother Kenny as he pummeled me with eggs including rotten ones.  I think there should be laws against an older person throwing eggs at a child, don't you?

Now Pat was creative.  He peeled the shell off of a very rotten egg which left an egg held together with a very thin film which is on the inside of every egg.  He was tossing it up in the air trying to hit the eve of the big barn when my sister came out.  Ya, you got it, just in time for the egg to land right on the top of her head.  She cried and mom "had a cow" as the odor was dramatic.  They washed her hair with vinegar, milk, and about everything you can think of to get rid of that smell.

Now one last thing about Kenny.  He and I were tossing rocks over the car at each other and remember he was four years older and mature and should have known better.  He should have been a positive influence on me.  Anyway, Kenny raised his head too quickly and a rock hit him in the head which caused a tremendous amount of blood to start flowing down his head and face.  I thought I had killed him.  I think he got stitches and the game was over.  Mom and Dorothy were not so happy with us.  Of course it was Kenny's fault.


What do you learn in the Osage:

• there are rotten eggs in the barn as well as Washington D.C.

• great memories are made with your children in the out doors
• look before you go through the barn door and in fact think ahead about the future, get it?
• don't blame others when you make bad decisions (like throwing rocks? or drinking and driving or texting and driving)

Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com