Did You Ever Wonder Why...

[Wilma]

While remembering the good old days (I can't spell the other word) it seems to me that my little brother and I didn't just burn up firecrackers.  We experimented with them like they were dynamite and tried to see how much of a hole we could make with one.  The popular thing to do then was blow up a tin can to see how high it would go.  We learned that the edge of the can had to set on the firecracker with the fuse out,  1. so it could be lit easily and 2.  because if you set the can down over it, it would burn up the oxygen and go out before it went off.  Besides it was our money we were burning.

[Teresa]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM!!!
The bigger ...the brighter.. the LOUDER!!!!
Throw a stick of dynamite in the air and I would clap til my hands hurt!
LOL 

Now you know why I like Machine guns.. 

yeah mama.. I DO have lots of footage to go through and I will try to do that tonight..
after I go get some rocks to do my fountain  on my porch..

I have been cleaning all day long.
I had a dratted mouse in my pantry and the nasty little cuss chewed a hole in every pkg of everything I had. what a mess!.. 3 hrs later.. I have a clean house and a very clean pantry.

Well I am off to see how many snakes I can scare out from under the rocks.. and you know that the ones I want will have the varmints under them.. UGH.

[Jo McDonald]

That hateful little mouse in your pantry, got in from under the door that Flo allowed for your wish   lol lol lol lol lol lol     ohhhhhhhhhhh  and how this girl of ours HATES MICE  !!!!!

[Teresa]

I set a trap .... but you know when I catch it, either Kjell will have to get it..or I will take the long needle nose pliers and get the trap and throw it all out in the back yard, until someone comes to un-trap it.. lol
I'm not afraoid of them.. I just can't stand that long tail and that dead body hooked so tight..
Ugh.. creeps me out.
  And this comes from a girl who can smack a spider with her hand , grab up anything else that crawls or slithers.. and who raised hamsters for awhile!
Go figure ...   It has to be that slick hairless tail... makes me shudder.. and a rat will send me into tailspins.

I remember when I was married to Daryl and I always like to give my horses some oats every day.. but I hated to go into the grain bin..
Before I would open the door I would whack on the outside and sing loud and make all kinds of ruckus so the mice would all hide before I had to shovel oats.
One time , I opened the door.. peeked inside.. saw that nothing was scurrying around, so I set my bucket down, picked up the shovel, scooped up a shovel full of oats, and a mouse was in the scoop that I shoveled up!
I kind of screeched/screamed which you know, scared the poor mouse and he jumped out of the shovel..and hit me right on the front of my overalls and then hit my chin!!!

I threw the shovel and screamed like a rabid hyena falling down in the process because I thought the mouse had hooked on to the front of my overalls, and I was grabbing at my clothes, twisitng and screeching and when I did,I fell flat ..  face down in the bin of oats!

Daryl had heard me and he come running inside there out of breath like he had run the marathon in 10 seconds..., of course thinking that something horrible had happened to me.. only to find and see that I was on my belly in the oats...with them in my clothes,  in my hair, hat off my head, bucket upside down ......and of course no mouse.
I imagine after all of that, every mouse on the ranch was heading to high country to get away from the raving screaming blond!
Took awhile before I lived that one down!~~

[Ole Granny]

Save that -maybe you should be writing a book or a column.  I enjoy ever word you write.

[emptynest]

Don't get me wrong -- I do like the pretty ones.  I have never shot off any pretty ones -- like I said earlier, I grew up with limited sparklers and I loved the black snakes, but my parents outlawed them once they found out they left permanent stains on the sidewalks.  I just know that my black lab goes into almost seizures at the sound of the big booms. 

I wish I could say I had really fond memories of 4th of July growing up----we would eat outside (picnic) in our backyard after an afternoon of swimming, but that was the busy time for my dad to be out patrolling the lakes, so he often be absent.  I think my memories became darker of 4th of July because he often would get called out for a drowning and it never failed to be about that time of year.  The worst was when he was the one who actually recovered the body of that of a small child about the age of my brother.  I must tell you---there were several reasons my brothers and sisters and I were shielded from some of the fireworks, lakes, and stuff.  We had a wonderful childhood, because we really didn't know that we were missing out on anything. 

Kinda off track on the subject, but that's where I am coming from. I can appreciate the pretty ones--just not the loud ones or the mess that doesn't get picked up afterwards.  I am also a "pickup your own trash" fanatic.

[Diane Amberg]

   Ok, I'm finally starting to figure out how to do this . Please forgive me if I have messed up anything. We had rain for the 4th, but nothing like you all have been having. And did you ever wonder why an airport is called a "terminal?"

[Judy Harder]

Why,

when I go to the store, i. e. WalMart or another chain store........I try to avoid the time of day when all the mother's seem to shop and the kids are either in school or day-care or whatever.........but each and every time I go the parents are there with their kids.
Then the kids are yelling and or pitching a fit and or their parents are going at it with them.
I don't know which is worse, kids fussing and yelling or their parents throwing a tantram.


I do know when I get in line.............with the fewest people in line......that there is a mother with one or two kids who are into everything in that row and the mother ignores what they are doing to visit.........and I get to watch the little urchins do their damage.......

Grr.......either I am getting old (YOU THINK?) or I just am having a serious problem with wanting to get their attention on their little behinds and make em mind........and not sure if it is their parents or the little ones I want to grab.........

I do enjoy the peace and quiet when I get back to my car.............wheee.........I didn't think I would ever get to be a crabby old lady, but guess what....? I have made it......LOL.

As for the mouse episode, my sister and brother had a friend stop and she was showing them the new wallpaper  she had put up in one of the boys' room.
They walked into the room and just as they step in a mouse runs UP Diana's pant leg on the inside of her britches......
She came out of her pants so fast and all the help she was getting from Mike and their friend,Corky was laughter and more laughter..........She could have smacked them.......and to this day does NOT go a day without paying attention to the entry to a room.

They have a  super nice house and we don't even see moths or any kind of varmit there........It is a funny story.......except for her living through it.

[Janet Harrington]

This has nothing to do with "Did you ever wonder why...", but I have to tell you that I laughed and laughed and laughed about the mice stories, so I have to tell one of my own.

When Patti (the youngest sister) and I were the only ones left at home, we slept upstairs.  I had one room and Patti had the other.  In Patti's room was a day couch that we had placed in what I call a cubby hole.  It was a part of the room that had a window and all that would fit in there was the little day couch.  (Mother can tell you the correct name for that little area).

Anyway, one night after we had all gone to bed, all of a sudden Patti starts screaming.  I ran from my room starting across the hall to Patti's room.  Up the stairs comes our Mother (Wilma), taking two steps at a time.  Patti was screaming and coming out of her room also.  Apparently, a mouse had been inside the little day couch and decided to pay Patti a visit by running across her face.  Mother heard the screaming and though something was getting Patti.  I, being the big sister and was training to be a hero, was running out of my room to save my sister.  I don't think I have ever seen Patti so scared in my life.  She really didn't want to sleep on that day couch.  I don't know if she slept with me or slept in the bed in that room, but not too long after that, that little day couch was taken out of that room and thrown away.

[dandymomma]

Did you ever wonder why people are so freaked out by mice? (Myself included)

I was down in the basement doing laundry one evening, and had just taken a load out of the dryer when something fell out of my bundle. I set the laundry on the folding table and bent down and picked the thing up. It looked like a piece of fruit. I carried it upstairs and asked my husband what it was. He said, "Honey, you have just dehydrated your first mouse!!!" I screamed and threw that nasty thing accross the dining room and went to the kitchen to scrub my hands. I made him go pick it up and take it out to the alley. I was afraid to open the dryer for weeks!!!