The Silver-Leaf Maple
We lived in 2 different houses on California Ave. First, we lived at 2607 California. We later crossed the street to 2610a California.
2607 had a silver-leaf maple in the back yard. We would climb the tree and spy on the whole neighborhood. This came in very handy when we learned to make pull-tab guns. Beer cans used to have pull-tabs, a circle of aluminium connected to a tab that had been scored on the top of the can. We would find these things everywhere. If you break off the tongue, you have a circle with one sharp edge. All you needed now was a wooden stake, a springy clothespin, a rubber band, and 2 nails. These goodies could be found just by searching the alley. Nail the clothespin to one end of the stake, nail the rubberband to the other, and poof! You have a weapon capable of flinging a spinning ring of doom some twenty feet or more. If you had built your gun properly, it would send the pull-tab spinning in a nice, flat arc. The goal was to score a hit on your opponents, and preferably, to draw blood. Scratching your victim with a light weight pull-tab was no easy task, so it was worth bonus points to achieve this rare phenomenon. If you had a pull-tab gun that could do this, everyone wanted you to make one for them.
My sister and I added accessories to our guns. First came a grip for the underside, so it looked more like a machine gun. Next, we found a bonanza of small hooks to screw into the side of the gun. No more pockets full of pull-tabs! Now we could hang them on the gun for a fast reload. (we got the hooks by going into an abandoned house and twisting them out of the wall)
We would sit on the porch with our guns, waiting for other kids to come by to play. Pretty soon, we had a miniature swarm of armed children. It was time to break off into teams. Me and my sister were always on the same team. I'd climb the tree and wait. J (my sis) would chase kids down the alley toward me. She was fast, and I was accurate. Together we were nearly unbeatable. I'd sit quietly up in that tree, sniping at my friends and gleefully racking up casualties. You would think people would learn to look up once in a while, wouldn't you?
The game ended for good when I was in the 6th grade. I went to Catholic school, and that was the year I got confirmed. Full of the Holy Spirit, and wanting to be good catholics, we threw our glorious pull-tab guns onto the roof of the bar so we wouldn't be tempted to shoot our friends ever again.