It made no scents...no scents at all!

One hot summer night in Dallas, my brother George and I got into a bunch of trouble. I was 16, George was 14, and we were out, after dinner, looking for a little trouble to get into. We walked east, about two blocks, with no particular destination in mind, enjoying the night air, the loud crickets and tree frogs. We had enjoyed a nice meal at home, but, in those days, Mom and Dad didn't have central air conditioning in their home. We had a 'swamp cooler' and a couple of window air conditioning units. We preferred being outdoors in the evenings, until bedtime, and often would run into friends and spend time with them.

As we walked east on Circle Drive, we noticed a street light up ahead, and what appeared to be a small dog, under the street light, eating the June bugs that had been attracted to the light. As we got closer, however, we realized that this was no dog -- it was a SKUNK! We had never been this close to a skunk, and, knowing how 'ripe' skunks can be, when aroused, we couldn't resist the temptation to stir up a little trouble.

We hurried over to the flowerbed of one of our neighbors, and picked up a number of dirt clods, which we began 'winging' at the skunk. We were lousy shots, and a number of our earthen missiles missed our intended target. The skunk, however, was becoming agitated, and did a little dance, and sort of stomped his feet as he pivoted around and around. One dirt clod, however, nailed the skunk and the skunk responded with...well, you know what he responded with! The skunk turned away from us, raised his tail, and let fly! Out of range, and laughing, we continued throwing clods of dirt, and the poor skunk appeared to continue his 'olfactory retaliatiion!' Finally, we noticed the smell! It was unbelievably strong! That smell was also beginning to be 'noticed' by homeowners in this part of the neighborhood, who had the retching scent pulled into THEIR swamp coolers, and into their homes! People began leaving their homes, in a vain attempt to get away from the terrible odor. That is when some of the neighbors noticed the Shoemake boys -- and the skunk -- and putting two and two together, knew we were the cause of the scintillating episode, and the authors of their distress! It was hard to tell which exhibited more anger, the homeowners or the skunk.

We couldn't help laughing, however, and as we ran back toward our home, we had no idea that the stinky business had enveloped OUR home as well! To make matters worse, one or more of the neighbors up the hill had called Mom and Dad and had expressed their displeasure with the Shoemake boys. We got into trouble, but, in a day or two, when the stink had abated a little, all was forgiven...at home. Some of the neighbors never did seem to 'forgive and forget'. To this day I don't know why we did it...it made no scents then...and it still makes no scents at all! :)