Blood Sport

Maybe it was because we lived just outside a war zone, but it seemed many of our games involved a battle of some sort. Of course we had a number of weapons to choose from; rocks, dirt clumps, sticks and BB guns. My personal favorite was the sticker burr ball. Using great skill, one could harvest the pesky burrs from their stem and form a sizable ball. This ball could then be thrown at the opponent leaving a wound similar to a shotgun blast.

The most memorable use we found for this weapon was the gauntlet. A group would gather around the street with freshly made ammo; some poor soul would then ride their bike through the crowd getting blasted from all sides. We would spend the next several minutes laughing and plucking the deadly burrs from the victim’s skin. Ah, to be young again.