Years ago, I stayed with friends after school until my mom picked me up on her way home from work.
Where I stayed was a small farm on the edge of town. They had some grass land, a pond or two, some out buildings and of course the typical farm animals, (ie, guinea, chickens, dogs, cats, etc.).
Out towards one of the ponds there was an old wooden "platform" up in a tree that was intended to be a tree house of sorts. Myself and two other boys climbed up to that platform one sunny afternoon day and were just goofing around. One of the boys found a loose 2x4 and threw it over the railing of the platform and directly onto a parked Brush Hog.
Needless to say, UNDER that Brush Hog was a hornets nest and they were NOT happy about that 2x4 disturbing their peace. You could hear the bzzz coming up that tree and down we went, running for what we thought, was our lives! Arms flailing, screaming, slapping our hair and clothes trying to get them off.
You know how the old saying goes, "I don't have to be fast, I just have to be faster than you."
Well, one of the boys was slower than the other two and he got the worst of it. Personally, I came out unharmed (somehow).
Good times!
They can surely get you. I took a dare as a young buck and decided to shoot a hole in a hornets nest hanging in a tree once. I was not very far away and shot it with my .22 bolt action. Before I could kick out the round and place another’s one in those suckers were on me. My great uncle use to have fun daring me lol.
About 50 years ago we were surveying down a railroad track that went through a tunnel. As we exited the tunnel we spied a hornets nest on a power pole about 50 or so feet away. The crew chief drew his .45 and put a round through the nest. OOOPS!!! they came out and directly down the path of that bullet into the tunnel. Running down the ballast on a railroad track is tough.
I could have saved him the running lol. I learned at a young age how fast they could track a .22 bullet. LOL. I reckon I did just about every dumb thing they dared me to. Grab a magneto. Grab electric fence. Hold spark plug to see if it was firing.
