In 1960, when by brother Curtis and I were 13 years old, we asked our parents if we could bring a neighbourhood friend on our two-week summer vacation to Skeleton Lake.  We'd done that often with friends Claude or Larry.  Mom and Dad said "yes".  We invited Dave Ferris.  Dave was a nice enough kid, likeable, but he had a slight edge to his personality.

We stayed at my mom's sister's cottage.  We three boys bought some small firecrackers.  We would light them, hold the lit fuse and throw the firecrackers in the air.  It was a three-way contest to see whose firecracker would explode closest to the lake.  We lost many in the water.  Dave decided that it would be more fun to light up and throw the firecrackers at each other.  Dad came back from fishing so that game lasted five minutes!  After the stupid game, Dad made us clear the shallows of any remnants of the firecrackers.  Dave didn't understand why we had to do that.

My parents had friends staying at Wilson's Lodge.  They had a daughter, Jan. Jan was one year older than us.  She was more sophisticated and mature. The friends came to the cottage every day.  One day, we four kids were sitting at the dining table playing a board game.  Dave was sitting next to Jan.  He stuck a porcupine needle into her leg.  With the burrs, the needle did not easily come out.  The dumb joke did not go over well.

Later that week, Jan came over for a campfire.  We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.  Dave had a near perfect golden-brown marshmallow on his stick.  He lowered his stick and flung the mallow off the stick skyward.  I saw it flying through the light of the fire, into the dark-night sky.  The next time I saw the projectile, in had landed in Jan's 1960's bouffant hair; a warm, gooey mess!

At the end of our Skeleton Lake vacation, Mom, Dad and we three guys took Dave home before we drove several blocks to our house.  At Dave's driveway, we all got out of the car to stretch and get Dave's suitcase.  Dave's Mom came out to the front porch, excited to see her son home and asked, "How was your vacation?"  After two weeks in paradise, beautiful Skeleton Lake, Dave, like a Eddie Haskel moment on "Leave it to Beaver", said this ... and it's the only thing he said to his mom, as hard as it may be to believe.  "Mrs. Deloye made me wash dishes every night!"

Dead silence.  The End.