(#5068) Remembering my Mom this morning

      A particular life lesson I learned from Joanne Hall my Mom was to never pull the trigger on a gun when it was aimed at someone. Even toy guns. So when I was 16 and feeling high from partying with a classmate of mine on a weekend we had a pistol in his house playing around with it. It was loaded but we removed the clip as it was an old German luger type pistol. What we discovered afterward was that just because the clip is removed a round is still in the chamber. Talk about learning something the hard way.
     Well I had the pistol in my hand and aimed it at my friend Carl's head while he was laying on the couch. I put it up close to his head within a foot or so and almost pulled the trigger. But I remembered in that moment my Mom saying don't! So I didn't. Well Carl, same name as mine, took the pistol from me and I went to sit 20 feet or so away at the end of the hallway where the house phone was and called our friend Patricia to see if she knew where any parties were. Sitting there against the wall on the floor talking to Pat, Carl did aim the pistol at my head but he didn't have my Mom's warning not to pull the trigger pop up into his head.
     Well Carl was not a bad shot it seems as he only missed above my head by about 2 inches. So Mom saved me from a manslaughter charge and again I was lucky not to be dead or maimed badly because Carl was not a great shot. All within about 2 or 3 minutes. A life lesson that was crucial to that 16 year old me. That memory of my Mom intervening in my life when she wasn't even there is probably the most clear example of just how much she influenced my life. I wasn't a bad kid back then but circumstances were somewhat out of my control. Mom saved me from a totally different confined life that was a hairbreadth away from happening.