Carl Levitian
member
I don't know why, but I was thinking of an incident that tool place many, many years ago in my younger single days in the army. It involved a late night prowler and some off post housing for some army nurses.
Maybe watching Byron Ferguson on the TV, brought it to mind.
It was the very early 1970's, and I was stationed at Ft. Devons Massachusetts. I was dating this one young nurse, and she was living in an off post rented house in a quiet nieghborhood of Ayer Massachusetts.
One evening, while watching TV in the family room in the back of the house, three of the young women were winding down, watching some show before turning in for the night. One of the ladies looks up and shrieks, startling the others, and there at the back door is a face looking in at them. Not just any face.
There was a ski mask over the face.
Next thing happens is the glass in the door breaks, and a gloved hand reaches in groping for the latch. One girl throughs a bedroom slipper at the intruder, and the other two run and hide in the bedroom. Intruder keeps reaching for the latch.
There was a forth young lady home, studying in her room, and at the screams, comes running to investigate.
The forth young lady was named Linda, nicknamed "Little Linda". She stood all of 5' 2" and was a slip of a thing. Sort of a Sally Field kind of girl. but fiesty. Good thing, too.
It must have been something in the screams that told Linda it wasn't just a dropped bottle of nail polish. She came equipted. You see, Linda loved archery, and had this Ben Pearson recurve bow she practiced with. Pretty darn good with it too. Only 35 pounds pull, but she managed to get a deer every fall since she was a teen in junior high school. Her daddy back in the little rural Pennsilvania town they lived in tought her well.
Well, Linda shows up in the doorway between the family room and the kitchen with her bow and an arrow already knocked. A nice broadhead too. By this time the intruder had opened the door, but looked up and there was Linda, full draw, aimed right at him.
He lets out a very audible "OH S--T!" and dives back out the door just as an arrow thunks into the wall just in back of where he was standing. He glaces back in from around the door frame, but Linda already has the spare arrow that had been tucked in the fingers of her left hand, knocked and on the bow at half draw. At this point, the young lady archer lets loose a stream of blue color cursing at him, yelling she's gonna stuff and mount his carcass over the fireplace. Intruder disappears.
One of the other ladies, hiding in the bedroom, had called the police, and in a few moments the Ayer town constables show up and search around the place with thier flashlights. The intruder is gone, no hide nor hair sighted. Cops look at the arrow in the wall.
"Lady, do you know what you're doing with that thing?"
Wrong question for one Linda J. Tomkins. Like I said, daddy had trained her well as a little girl.
Linda gives the cop a hard stare, askes for his card, he hands her one. She walks out in the back yard and wedges the card in the bark of a tree and askes the cop to show her what the averidge defence range in. The cop grins, paces out about almost 20 yards, and askes if she can hit the card from there.
Dumb.
Young lady in question had been at archery since little girl, remember?
She has an arrow knocked, but bow down at waist hight. In a single fluid movement, draws bow up and shoots in a quick instictive movement. Nails the card a bit off to one side, but on the paper. This by the light of the single bulb that was the back porch light. Cop shuts up. Intruder never comes back, Linda goes to sleep every night with bow strung and a couple broadheads standing by.
I guess I was thinking of some people I know just south of here, in Washinton D.C.
I wouldn't want to take on a Glock packing intruder with a bow, but it may not be too bad againt a knife or crowbar wielding one.
I guess sometimes we have to just make do with what we got. Like sm says, run what ya brung.
I think of some young army nurses who may have avoided a bad fate, thanks to a fiesty little lady with a Ben Pearson bow.
Life can be strange. Keep you're options open, along with your mind.
Maybe watching Byron Ferguson on the TV, brought it to mind.
It was the very early 1970's, and I was stationed at Ft. Devons Massachusetts. I was dating this one young nurse, and she was living in an off post rented house in a quiet nieghborhood of Ayer Massachusetts.
One evening, while watching TV in the family room in the back of the house, three of the young women were winding down, watching some show before turning in for the night. One of the ladies looks up and shrieks, startling the others, and there at the back door is a face looking in at them. Not just any face.
There was a ski mask over the face.
Next thing happens is the glass in the door breaks, and a gloved hand reaches in groping for the latch. One girl throughs a bedroom slipper at the intruder, and the other two run and hide in the bedroom. Intruder keeps reaching for the latch.
There was a forth young lady home, studying in her room, and at the screams, comes running to investigate.
The forth young lady was named Linda, nicknamed "Little Linda". She stood all of 5' 2" and was a slip of a thing. Sort of a Sally Field kind of girl. but fiesty. Good thing, too.
It must have been something in the screams that told Linda it wasn't just a dropped bottle of nail polish. She came equipted. You see, Linda loved archery, and had this Ben Pearson recurve bow she practiced with. Pretty darn good with it too. Only 35 pounds pull, but she managed to get a deer every fall since she was a teen in junior high school. Her daddy back in the little rural Pennsilvania town they lived in tought her well.
Well, Linda shows up in the doorway between the family room and the kitchen with her bow and an arrow already knocked. A nice broadhead too. By this time the intruder had opened the door, but looked up and there was Linda, full draw, aimed right at him.
He lets out a very audible "OH S--T!" and dives back out the door just as an arrow thunks into the wall just in back of where he was standing. He glaces back in from around the door frame, but Linda already has the spare arrow that had been tucked in the fingers of her left hand, knocked and on the bow at half draw. At this point, the young lady archer lets loose a stream of blue color cursing at him, yelling she's gonna stuff and mount his carcass over the fireplace. Intruder disappears.
One of the other ladies, hiding in the bedroom, had called the police, and in a few moments the Ayer town constables show up and search around the place with thier flashlights. The intruder is gone, no hide nor hair sighted. Cops look at the arrow in the wall.
"Lady, do you know what you're doing with that thing?"
Wrong question for one Linda J. Tomkins. Like I said, daddy had trained her well as a little girl.
Linda gives the cop a hard stare, askes for his card, he hands her one. She walks out in the back yard and wedges the card in the bark of a tree and askes the cop to show her what the averidge defence range in. The cop grins, paces out about almost 20 yards, and askes if she can hit the card from there.
Dumb.
Young lady in question had been at archery since little girl, remember?
She has an arrow knocked, but bow down at waist hight. In a single fluid movement, draws bow up and shoots in a quick instictive movement. Nails the card a bit off to one side, but on the paper. This by the light of the single bulb that was the back porch light. Cop shuts up. Intruder never comes back, Linda goes to sleep every night with bow strung and a couple broadheads standing by.
I guess I was thinking of some people I know just south of here, in Washinton D.C.
I wouldn't want to take on a Glock packing intruder with a bow, but it may not be too bad againt a knife or crowbar wielding one.
I guess sometimes we have to just make do with what we got. Like sm says, run what ya brung.
I think of some young army nurses who may have avoided a bad fate, thanks to a fiesty little lady with a Ben Pearson bow.
Life can be strange. Keep you're options open, along with your mind.
