Rubber Bands

Reading this story reminded me of my childhood. Growing up on a street with lots of kids, we had our fair share of war games (as well as soccer, baseball, hockey, football, basketball, etc). And I know my friends throughout the years had plenty of stories from when they "fought" the kids on their streets too (Zach even had a fort in his backyard). Hell, I've even been a part of nerf wars in the apartment. Who says you have to grow up?

In particular though, this reminded me of when my brother Justin got his rubber-band "shotgun". The ability to load two bands, and fire them at once, or in two shots, gave him a distinct advantage over Tim and I, who had nothing but our hands. My dad had taught us how to wrap the band around our hand in a gun shape, but Tim mainly resorted to just using his index fingers and slingshotting it.

(Side note - my dad had pretty damn good aim with the wrap-around trick. He hit a fly in midair from across the table once. Cut the thing in two pieces. We all thought it was the coolest thing. Hell, I still do.)

But while Tim was fine with no weapon, I wasn't. And that double-barreled shotgun caused some problems. So one weekend, my dad and I (but mostly my dad) crafted a pistol out of a block of wood. It had the same basic idea as Justin's - notch the rubber band in the front, pull it back and into a clothespin, and just push it to fire. And despite the shorter barrel length, it fired pretty damn well. Very accurate, at any rate, and the stakes were evened.

It was nice to be reminded of those times, and I'm glad I stumbled on that other story. But I also can't help but wonder how different things would've been if somebody had one of these: