Medical science says that the male frontal lobe is not fully developed until age 22-23. That means teenage boys are often more susceptible to doing stupid things that involve taking chances. Some of those stupid things are just illogical but others are downright dangerous. Most men who are reading this can identify with that statement. Here's an example of that concept:
In the summer of 1960, Jerry Blair (who is writing this) and
Rusty Bourquin (who unfortunately died in 1983) went to Mackinaw
City to spend several days in a tent at the state park near the
bridge to do some sightseeing and camp out. On their last day
there, we decided to buy a pint of paint and a brush at the local
hardware store. That night we climbed onto the first pillar of
the Mackinac Bridge and walked out about 50 yards on the bottom
truss to the first stanchion which was positioned well above
the water. It was much more difficult to navigate our way out
there than we had expected. It took some time. And care was essential.
Dumb. Rusty was a little guy and
not too hard to hold onto. So, I held him by his belt as he leaned
over to do the painting upside down. Because he was upside down,
and a bit disoriented, Rusty painted the "J" in Jerry
backwards. Did I mention dumb yet? See the photo below
and judge for yourself. We left our business card painted
on the brdge with the wording "Lansing Everett 1961 Rusty-Jerry."
How stupid was that?? We had just told everyone exactly who we
were and where to find us. Since we did not have a camera, we had someone we met (a girl named Sherry Ward) take a picture and mail us the print. So, that's the story and I'm sticking to it. Rusty would think it was funny to tell the tale upon ourselves after all these years. He had quite a sense of humor. All this proves that our frontal lobes had a ways to go before becoming mature. Thankfully, the authorities let the statute of limitations expire. They must have had bigger fools to deal with than us. QED (Latin for quod erat demonstratum
meaning "which was to be proved.")
Jerry Blair |