B...B...but I didn't mean to!

I've been communicating with a "retention specialist" at Nationwide, our homeowners and auto insurer, to review our policies and see if we need to revise anything. In their marketing materials describing liability coverage they specifically use the example of a child or guest breaking a neighbor's window as being covered. Takes me back.

When we were kids BB guns were a big deal and we had a lot of fun with them, target shooting and even playing William Tell type games (shooting tin cans off one another's legs or arms). Local birds and mothers weren't as enthralled ("you could put someones's eyes out!"). For several years I wasn't allowed to have one and had to rely on Oan and other slightly older kids for my BB fixes.

When I was about 11, my Snoqualamie cousins, Benny and Gary Duvall (also slightly older) got an upgrade of their airgun arsenal to a Daisy lever action, so at the end of a family hunting trip to Teanaway they gave me their outmoded pump type. My mother reluctantly, with lots of warnings and cautions, unfortunately allowed me to keep the thing. Alas, the VERY FIRST day of being a gun totin' dude became probably the worst in my life to that point and is still a Hall of Famer.

Home alone while the folks were at work, I invited Jimmy Spencer up to try out my new weapon. From the upstairs bedroom by the fireplace we decided to see if we could hit a bird in the pear tree next door (Swan Vue now). We missed, but that didn't mean we couldn't do serious damage anyway. After a couple of shots at the bird we noticed Mrs. Held way across in the house at the southeast corner of Park AVe. No. and 38th No. - you, know, the one with the huge picture window? - come out into her yard and start looking around. Well, who woulda thought the thing could send a BB that far and still have enough steam to put a hole in what must have been their cheap flimsy window? Two holes, actually.

The wait for Pa to come home to tell on myself was worse than the telling. It cost the astronomical sum of $45 to replace the window. Really a lot, then. Shortly after Pa and Mr. Spencer worked something out with the Helds (they tried to keep the holed glass to cut for other uses, but broke it in the process) he upgraded the homeowners policy to cover such things. Thus, I'm happy now to relate that the NEXT time, a couple years later, some buddies and I accidentally smashed a huge window in a slightly less stupid manner (my part was just "being a McNeely") he actually came out ahead by taking full responsibilty, making an insurance claim and collecting a few bucks from my collaborators' parents.

I guess I should relate this true story to the Nationwide "retention specialist". It seems like they ought to know what they're getting into.