Barn-Jumpers

Barn-Jumping:

We were visiting with some friends, the Gene England family,  at Leachville. Several of us kids were exploring the barn when we were challenged by Darrell to jump.  Rhonda, Deb, Linda and I accepted the challenge.  

When Darrell dared us girls to jump he didn't warn us about not bringing our knees into our chin as we landed, but we learned it quickly as we rolled around on the ground in pain. That jars your teeth all the way into your brain.... Of course Rhonda waited until last to jump, and changed her mind after seeing our pain. 

We later moved to a large two-story house in the country near Leachville that had several out buildings. There was a chicken coop, a smoke house and a large barn. Since Deb and I were experienced barn-jumpers I suppose  we felt that we had to teach this skill to Rhonda and to Sherlyn, who was only five. 

On the ground in front of the barn was a large stack of lumber approximately six or eight feet wide. So Deb and I were good sisters and warned Sherlyn and Rhonda to jump wide so they wouldn't get hurt. We were daring, but we tried to keep the fun safe, if we thought of it.  

Deb and I were so intent on keeping Rhonda and Sherlyn from landing in the lumber pile beneath the barn loft, that we forgot to warn them about keeping their knees from hitting their chin. That is one of the incidents that Sherlyn blames her memory problems on today.