Don't The Zuwaki's Have A Dog?

So since we essentially ruled the neighborhood we felt that it was our civic duty to swim in everyone's pool who owned one. Most of the time this would take place when we found out they were on vacation but sometimes it would take place when they were home in the wee hours of the morning. Why you ask? Well cause we could! So we had accomplished the task of swimming in all pools but one, the Zuwaki's. Legend told that the Zuwaki's pool was surrounded by a large wooden fence and that Mr. Zuwaki had indeed installed a switch in his bedroom that when flipped turned on an alarm and every light in the house. To this day we do not know whether or not this was true because when the time came to find out....I personally didn't look back.

On this fateful eve I believe the cast of characters involves myself, Roy, Greg, Jason, and Josh. The Zuwaki's lived on a couple acre plot of land in which the majority of the backyard did indeed have a 5 foot high wooden fence around it. On a silent, very dark evening we decided to try our most daring of pool raids. We slipped around the fence all the way down to the back gate that ended near the gate. We slipped the latch and Josh G stayed behind as Greg, Jason, Roy, and I slipped into the backyard. As we got about half way up the fence into the backyard we realized Josh had disappeared and the gate was open. Jason thought that the gate should be closed so as to not tip off anyone to our misdeed. Therefor Greg took the mission of going back to close the gate of the fence and then decided he would just stay back leaving only Roy, Jason, and myself to carry out the mission. Thinking back this would end up being a horrible idea as this decision would make things interesting later.

So we make our way up next to the garage of the house which was on the far left side and about 10 yards from the edge of the pool. As we are slinking up the side of the house we get to the open door leading into the garage. Now since I lived directly across from the Zuwaki's something must have clicked into my head....something that we may have forgotten when these words escaped my mouth quietly, "Hey don't the Zuwaki's have a dog?" No sooner had the g escaped my mouth then we heard a chain rattle in the darkness of the open door. You guessed it as we had a classic "oh shit" moment as the Zuwaki's dog came bounding out of the garage barking and growling.

We all turn tale and run as fast as we can towards the gate at the back of the fence when we all realize that Greg is gone and the gate has been fastened shut. Needing a quick getaway, finding the latch in the pitch darkness was not going to be an easy thing. We all arrived at the fence round the same time with completely different amusing results. Roy tried to do an old fashioned adrenaline fueled leap over the fence. Now this is Roy's claim as I didn't really see it but he swears that he made the leap over the fence but put his feet down too early. Since Roy had some pretty big feet they got wedged in between the pickets of the fence and fell face first onto the ground with a solid "humph." I myself got to the fence and tried a classic hands on top vault over the fence. I do a good job and clear said fence however my shirt on the other hand did get wrapped on a picket. I did a fairly acrobatic front flip over the fence as my shirt ripped to shreds. Jason slid feet first into the fence and began to search frantically for the latch on the gate. I am not sure if he found it or hopped the fence because I had made a break for the safety of a house a couple down.

Now surely enough, by the time I got turned around all the lights were on and Mr Zuwaki was emerging from the back door of the house. I found Greg at the back of the house 3 down from the Zuwaki's but had no idea where either Jason or Roy or Josh were. Jason and Josh had apparently made it safely across the street into the safety of my backyard but Roy was not so lucky. Having fallen on his face he took a little bit to recover and Mr Zuwaki was on his way down to the back gate. Roy got up and made a last ditch effort to hide in the garden or the neighbor's yard. Mr Zuwaki searched the area around his house and the one's immediately to the left and right but found no trace of anyone. He came very close to finding Roy and he stood almost right in front of where he was lying in the garden shining the flashlight out down by the lake but never really looked straight down.

This was the closest we ever got to being caught and we never did conquer the Zuwaki's pool, well at least not sneaky like as I swam a couple times on invite...LoL. It was a pretty nerve racking experience at the time but is one of the funnier moments we had as children. If only we had video of mine and Roy's adventure with the fence because I'm sure both would have been extreme comedy. Cheers!

The Clubhouse....

So in a recent survey I was asked to list one of the funniest moments that I could remember and one phrase always seems to come to mind...."Get the hammer quick!" Any of us who lived in the neighborhood at the time of this event will immediately laugh upon hearing these words. It was during spring break of one year during middle school and none of us were quite old enough for Cancun or Panama. Between our two neighborhoods was an old pig slaughter that was now just a concrete junk yard filled with trash, wood, and railroad ties. These were large, very heavy rectangles of black wood the is laid down, then the track is laid on top of them. Well we decided it would be a great idea if we built a clubhouse for the gang in this area...being it was fool of junk to use, we played there a lot, and it was right in the middle for all involved.

We began on a bright and sunny Monday morning, Roy, Bryson, Greg, Jeff Besser, Jason, and myself. Josh Gregory would join us at a later interval to put finishing touches on the place. So we begin gathering up tools and wood that we need to make the clubhouse and lay a piece of wood down for the floor. We then began to make the walls out of the railroad ties as interior support, and then nail a board on the outside of these for the wall. Well needless to say the railroad ties didn't stack neatly and were fairly heavy. So half of us are holding the railroad ties and the outter piece of wood that will be nailed into the ties. As I can remember myself, Greg, and Jason were holding the ties up and Roy and Bryson supporting the outside wall when we realized that we didn't have the tools nearby. Well Jason takes it upon himself to get the said tools and lets go of the railroad ties and wall.

All I hear are the words get the hammer quick and Jason attempts to sprint across a 5 foot area to get the tools. Next thing we know there's a huge crash as Jason trips and goes flailing into the other wall with wood and tools knocking half of it down upon himself. As this happens the wall is too heavy and we let it fall in which one of the railroad ties hits a board and in a sort of teeter-totter motion sends a brick up into the air. Now mind you this took all of 30 seconds but it was one of those true slow motion moments in life as the brick flies through the air to land on Bryson's foot smooshing his big toe. Bryson screams in pain and grabs Roy, who happened to be closest, and starts pounding on him cause he's in pain. The rest of us are just rolling on the ground at what has just transpired.

After checking on Jason and Bryson who were fine except for some cuts and bruises we laughed for nearly 10 minutes wondering why Jason let go of the wall and tried to run in such a small area to begin with. Eventually we got a pretty badass clubhouse built with a carpeted floor, hidden place for porn, and everything else young boys needed. It was a great way to spend a Spring Break building something with a bunch of friends. However to this day I can still see Jason falling and the brick flying through the air in slow motion and can do nothing but grin.

Cheers!