When I was seven or eight years old, Huston Johnston spent the night with Lyle and me.  Lyle and I were brothers, and Huston was our neighbor.  All three of were best friends.
The three of us, Lyle, Huston and I spent a lot of time together. nbsp; We also got into trouble together a lot it seemed.  This time we made it through the night without getting in trouble.  However, the next morning is another story.

This is that other story.

It was late fall, and we already had a long tall stack of firewwod to burn in the fireplace on those long cold winter days ahead.  I don't know who thought of hiding there first (I just can't remember as hard as I have tried.), but we kept looking at that woodpile.  Huson, Lyle and I knew that it would be the perfect place to hide while we smoked a cigarette.  I assume Huston or Lyle had the idea first, because they were three years older than I was and would have been 10 or 11 years old at the time.  When the morning chores were finished, all three of us slipped away for that cigarette.  None of knew smoking was bad for our health, however, we did know our parents didn't want us to smoke which would have made it more alluring to us.

Lyle, Huston and I hid behind that woodpile and lit our cigarettes.  We were enjoying them and thought we were really smart at finding such a perfect hiding place.  It never occured to any of us boys that the smoke was rising above the woodpile, and it could be seen from the house.  Suddenly Dad stepped around to behind that woodpile where we were sitting.  As he stepped around there beside us he said, "What are you boys doing?!  Playing Freight Train!"  Dad could really sound mean when he wanted too, and he wanted to then.

We were not playing freight train.  We were, however, running like freight trains.  Dad was not the type man to go lightly on punishment when he dished it out which in my case was often.  I still can't believe that I ran from Dad, or that any of did; however, we surely did.  I also can't believe that he didn't whip us for that and for smoking, but so far as I can remember neither of us got a whipping that time.  I still never ran from him again and don't believe that Lyle did either.

The next time Huston came to visit, and we wanted a cigarette we found a better place to hide.  We also made sure that the smoke could not be seen from any part of the house.  We weren't ignorant just boys having fun after all!