When I was in grade school...about 10 years old
I joined the Safety Patrol...the idea was they'd give some of the kids a neon orange sash and have us stand at intersections by the school and make sure the smaller kids crossed the street safely

I got drafted into doing it as I had a rep back then as a trouble maker and it was thought some responsibility would be good for me but what they never considered was giving me some power was a mistake(think what happens to normal people with absolute power then think what a kid who suddenly gets even a little power...a kid who had no business with any power at all)

I would stop trucks and make them sit while there were kids a hundred feet away who might or might not decide to cross at my intersection but I felt it was better to be safe than sorry...anyway this part of the story doesn't really concern the QOTW

As a reward for "volunteering" to be in the Safety Patrol all of us got to go to a tourist town an hour away where we would get to spend the day riding roller coasters and having fun

But first the teacher who was watching over us all wanted to ride the "Ducks"...this was a waterproof bus that could also run in the water as a boat...it took us on all the sights and then into the river where we looked at tons of rocks...needless to say by the time we came to the end all the kids were bored out of our minds

To get out though we had to pass through a souvenir shop where most of the kids bought candy and picture cards but I was entranced with a six foot rubber snake that was selling for only $2...without anyone noticing I made my purchase but I didn't know right then what I was going to do with it until later when we were forced into a "House of Horrors"...yeah the teacher thought it would be fun but it was just a dark couple of rooms with fake scenes set up supposedly to frighten us

It worked better than she hoped because while in there I had an idea to spice things up...I took my rubber snake(it was formed into a coil like it was about to strike) and I unwound it and placed it around this girl's neck

She began to scream because once I let go it coiled back up and she thought it was alive...her screaming got the other kids all scared and running into walls...everyone was looking for the exit in the dark and bouncing off each other yelling...the commotion finally got the attention of the guy running this particular attraction and he opened the door and when everyone saw the light from the door they rushed over knocking him down and getting him trampled by about 30 kids(and two teachers)

Since I was the only one laughing hysterically I was quickly pronounced the guilty party and my poor snake was confiscated

I was punished in the worst possible way...from somewhere the teacher found a thick cord and tied us together by our wrists for the rest of the day so no roller coaster for me since she didn't like them..no go carts because they were one person vehicles and tied together we didn't fit

Actually it didn't turn out all that bad since she wasn't that bad of a person and we ended up getting along pretty well but she still didn't untie us until we were getting on the bus to go home
(Inventor of the slipless banana peel, Fri 8 Dec 2006, 19:34, Reply)