Taipei - Solitary Lamp / The Time I Got Shot At

This and the next few postings will fall under the category of "miscellaneous"...just a few things here and there, not connected with any place or theme in particular.

I like pictures like this.  This much earlier posting comes to mind as being very similar in the way the subject stands in solitude.

I spent a long time selecting out the lamp in Photoshop so that it could have its own layer, the purpose of which was to desaturate for a black and white background.  Liked the original better, though, so here it is.
_________________________

The Time I Got Shot At

Well, shot near is more accurate.  It happened in Boy Scouts.  It was during summer camp when I was 12 years old, at Camp EO Siecke.

I was just a regular camper for the week, but had befriended a staffer my age who was there for the summer.  We all knew there was a Girl Scout camp right next door, separated only by a barbed wire fence, but had not yet braved a visit.  I was walking with my new friend one day when it occurred to us that it was time to change that.  After all, wouldn't the girls be just as anxious to see boys...wouldn't it be a treat for them as well?  This would be a neat and risky venture, because word was that capture earned you a QTH (Quick Trip Home).  Just too irresistible.

Off we went, picking our way through the woods toward the fence line.  When we finally got there it was easy going, because it had been cleared on either side by about ten feet.  We just started walking along, and arrived at a point where some of the cabins came into view.  Since cabins meant people, we started to get a little nervous, but kept walking.  Wow, what if we did see some girls?  What would we say?  What would they say or do?  What if we were captured and held prisoner?  Then it occurred to us that there might actually be some adults walking around keeping an eye on things.  Oh, the things we think of when it's too late...

Some voices from the other side of the fence fell within our hearing, and the prospect of actually interacting with anybody was just too much.  We decided to turn around and head back.

We had walked all of 20 feet on our way back when suddenly, out of nowhere, BOOM!!!  Very loud and very near.  That scared us enough, but adding to the drama were the sticks, pine cones and bark crashing down on top of us.  We high-tailed it as fast as we could, dodging the falling debris.  In what seemed a very short time we were more safely within our own territory and slowed to a nonchalant walk to avoid attracting attention.

By nightfall word got out that a couple of idiots were too close to the Girl Scout camp and the old man that served as a guard there gave them a warning shot into the trees.  Don't know if it was rock salt or buckshot, but he sure did his job, because we never entertained the idea again!