We were nutty kids. I’m Indigenous from northern Ontario so I grew up with a lot of rough kids, friends and relatives. We used to literally play dodge ball with one another by throwing rocks at each other … the fun and games usually ended when a good sized rock hit someone and someone started bawling their eyes out (I was a victim of such fun and games more than once). I also remember one winter sliding down a small hill with jagged metal nearby. We kept pushing each other around to end up in the danger zone … I pushed one of my cousins at just the right moment and he ended up tearing up his hand, straight through his hide mitten and winter clothing … there was quite a bit of blood, especially over the white snow.

Sometimes I’m just amazed that we even survived childhood. Our luck would have held in the Roman legions but I don’t think we would have lasted more than one campaign.

LATE EDIT: Jesus … this just triggered a memory as well … I fell once when I was playing with my friends in our family backyard which was filled with dad’s old machinery, vehicles, metal parts and just about any other imaginable thing that could slice you open. I landed face first onto some sort of sheet metal box with a sharp pointed edge. My brow bounced off the metal and nicked my skin. About half an inch lower and I would have lost my eye.

Let’s all imagine that I found the link to the Extra Fabulous Comic by Zach where the kid gets run over by a car. And we all laugh.