We were definitely, by today's standards, a gang. In our day, we were really just a group of nine children, who were able to find trouble everywhere.

The gang grew up in the days where you left home after breakfast and chores during the summer, to return home in time for supper and evening chores. For lunch everyone of us survived on fruit that the local farmer allowed us to retrieve from the ground and water from various hoses that we were able to take advantage of.

Of course, when something went wrong, we were the first ones blamed. The Sheriff would question us, mostly as a group, but depending on the severity, we became privileged to one on one interviews. If nothing else, honesty prevailed. If we did it, we wanted to claim our glory.

Over the years, our adventures grew and by the time we were about to graduate from high school, we were notorious.

Our pranks would put other activities to shame. We actually became famous after our prank during the summer break between eighth grade and the start of high school.

Before that time, the summer pranks included learning to smoke out in the country. No adults were on hand and we had both cigarettes and cigars which we called stogies. Nine girls and boys smoking our brains out, followed by the inevitable throwing up. It wasn't a surprise that none of us took up the habit in high school, college or university.

We did have our fun hiding tiny green garter snakes all over the place. Mothers would find them everywhere and I do remember the trick on our twelfth grade science teacher. None of us knew he was truly afraid of snakes. So, when he opened the desk drawer, screamed and then passed out; we were not expecting him to hit his head. Good grief, there was blood everywhere and I do believe there were several stitches to close his head wound.

I truly believe if the two guys at the back of the room hadn't laughed so hard, they would never have been blamed. They were suspended for a week, and the sad part is that they were not even part of our group, our gang.

Then there was the time one of the boys stole, yep I said stole, two bottles of his dad's whiskey. This was after the smoking episode but before the teacher crisis.

Once again, the group found it's way to the secluded country space of gathering. We sat on the stumps, that we used for chairs and passed around the first bottle. It burned on its journey through our esophagus and ignited a liquid fire in the pit of our stomach. After several passes, we cracked open the second bottle. I do think it is safe to say that we were light headed, woozy and fairly nauseous. Then suddenly, we were all laughing over silly things. A couple of the gang members had fallen off the stumps and had trouble getting up. This, of course, created peals of uncontrollable laughter. Slurring was very prominent. Then, the vomiting started. Before long everyone was off the stumps and was using them as support as we threw up, followed by several rounds of dry heaves.

The second bottle which had only been passed once, lay forgotten on the ground. During our stumbled trip home, too dizzy to ride our bikes, we were all ashen and pasty. With each step we swore never to indulge in drinking alcohol again. Once again, a lesson well learned from an adventure.

During the summer between our eleventh and twelfth grade, we all agreed that we had to do something that would truly be our piece de resistance. What could be done that would be a climax to our existence? Each of us had a great idea, in fact several ideas, which kept us busy for the summer. But alas, none of them had the oomph that we were all seeking.

The garter snake adventure in late September was close but not quite.

As Halloween approached, Samantha and Bill decided that we would have to do a prank that outdid any other prank.

Two weeks before the fateful day or rather night, our minds congealed on a plan. I am proud to say that only the group could think of this and carry it off. We were about to go down in history.

The supplies were limited and two of our group were most willing to obtain them. A brother and sister, actually twins, had no problem getting the spray paints- one red, one white, one blue and two black. The other object, a black painted chain which had to be at least one hundred feet long did, however, prove to be a little more difficult. Their father who owned the local hardware store was flexible with his children's requests. They always seemed to have a project or idea and therefore needed paint. A length of black painted chain was totally a different story. For this reason, the twins decided to just plain old steal it.

The plan became simple. The girl would conveniently lift the spare keys about two hours before the store closed on the night of our deed and pass them on to her brother. The boy, along with the other guys would be at the back door a few minutes before the closing time. From their spot they could see when she and her dad left the front door. They would wait for fifteen minutes before entering through the back door. With the alarm system deactivated, they could then proceed with the theft. It took them about an hour to measure out the required length, coil it into carriable loops for each of the boys and escape.

The alarm was reactivated just before the brother left the back door. The boys high fived each other with the success of their plan. There was another step, but they had a couple of hours to finish it. That included the brother returning to the store, once again deactivating the alarm, returning the keys, reactivating the alarm and deliberately leaving the back door open. Given that he had two minutes to clear the sliding gate, he hightailed it out. Since the sliding gate immediately closed and locked when the alarm went off, it would look like someone had climbed over and broken in.

Yes, I know that we all knew better, but it was a challenge and we had succeeded.

We were all waiting for him in the abandoned orphanage we occasionally used. It was about five blocks from the store to the orphanage and right next door to our goal. When he arrived, he was winded and needed time to catch his breath.

We watched as dusk became night. We knew that we were taking a chance of being caught, since it was Halloween, but it was an appropriate night for our prank. Besides it was special because it was a Friday, which meant no school tomorrow and there was a full moon rising.
We all grabbed a portion of the chain, except for the sister who grabbed the bag of spray paints. Our destiny awaited, as we travelled as quietly as church mice with a chain.

It took us an hour to accomplish our task, now all we had to do was use the spray paint.

We had wrapped the blackened chain around the railroad station outhouse. It was a double sider, meaning that on one side there was a men's toilet on the front and back and the ladies on the opposite side. The light bulbs had been an easy fix, we simply unscrewed the bulbs. The other end of the chain was attached to the caboose. The train pulled out at six-thirty in the morning to make a return trip, leaving the city at five-thirty in the evening. The trip took two hours each way. And most of us would be going off to college in the city next year.

Now, of course, we were not concerned with the ramifications. It was just our claim to glory. We were not worried about electricity or damage. We were just not worried.

The final act was to spray 'Gotcha' on the doors of the outhouse and then 'the Gang' on the end of the train station. Since the outhouse was gray, we used a combination of black and white. The station was white, so our color choice was black. The chain blended in with the gravel surrounding the outhouse.

We had all planned to be in the station's vicinity to watch our evil plan unfold, so we agreed to meet at the orphanage at six am. From there we could watch as the train pulled the outhouse down the tracks, with it smashing as it bounced along.

At six-thirty the next morning, the train pulled out without the toilet. We were shocked. What had happened?

Apparently, we had been pranked, we had forgotten that the local police did drive through every two to three hours. They had noticed the lights were out and investigated, only to find the graffiti, the chain and figured out the intent.

Not only that but we had forgotten the empty spray paint cans and since the hardware store was the only place to buy it, they were able to put together all the pieces.

Needless to say, there were several weekends that we scrubbed away the graffiti and repainted the entire outhouse and station, not just the spots we had sprayed. We also received lectures about the destruction of a landmark and had a large amount of community hours to work off.

Our planned prank, bit us in the hiney.

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