Flying Squirrels

Last night it was wonderful to get together with family and visit about General Conference. Since both Doug and Devn were there I asked them about the "Flying Squirrel Incident" and got a few more details that I hadn't remembered.


So Doug and his friend, Rex, had gone into the woods and had shot at a nest that turned out to belong to a mother squirrel and her babies. The mother was shot and the boys feeling guilty took the babies home. The squirrels stayed at Rex's house most of the time, where they were allowed to roam around the house. Mostly they climbed onto high perches and then would "fly" down and land on people's heads. Rex's family was going out of town for Christmas and so Doug was given the responsibility to take care of the baby squirrels.

In the meantime, Linda brought her fiance, Stan, to visit the family for Christmas. He knew about the flying squirrels, everyone knew they were around. Mother would not let them wander around the house, she insisted that they were kept contained. However, one night they got out and into the boys room, where Stan was sleeping. One of them climbed up on something high and swooped down in the dark only to land on Stan's face. The room went from quiet sleeping noises to screams and bed tearing apart. I don't imagine he was very happy about this, nor were my parents. Poor guy and he still married my sister. It become a family legend though. For years someone would say "Remember the flying squirrels?" and everyone would laugh.




Devn says there is a second part to this story. He was sleeping in the kitchen in a sleeping bag, since Stan had his bed. They put the squirrels in there in some kind of plastic container with boards and even a brick on the top. Someone decided that the squirrels wouldn't be able to breathe so after they were secured the boards and bricks were moved just a bit so that they could breathe. (I wonder if it was mother, it seems like the kind of well intentioned thing she would do.) Devn also woke up to the flying squirrels, only in this case they didn't swoop on his face or anything, they crawled into his sleeping bag and bit him. He must not have made much noise.

One other part that I remember is that Linda and I were sharing a bedroom. She had gone on a date with Stan and the boys short-sheeted her bed and put ice at the bottom. I was probably only 5 and I knew what they had done. I remember waiting and waiting for her to come home because it was going to be so funny. When she finally came home, I was silent as could be, pretending to sleep so she wouldn't suspect anything. She got ready for bed and got into the bed, only to find the sheets shortened, but she didn't live with my brothers all this time for nothing. She simply let go of the top sheet and kicked it down. (Remember to short sheet a bed you take the top sheet and tuck the bottom half of it into the top of the bed, then you make the bed so the top half of the sheet is folded up and looks just like normal. By letting go of the top half you don't have to remake the bed you just kick it down and then you sleep on top of the sheet.) So she kicked it down and THEN she found out that there was ice at the bottom of the bed. That's when she screamed and I laughed and laughed. I thought it was the funniest thing ever, of course, Linda was not so pleased. Then the boys came running in and she yelled at them a little bit and we all settled down to sleep. The best part for me was that I knew what was going to happen, my brothers trusted me to keep quiet so I got to watch the trap being sprung.

Good times!