"HAM"ing it up on a swing set

Other

Back in the 80's, some time after I graduated from high school, I took up the hobby of cb radio and was also starting to get interested in ham radio.

I had some radio buddies I would chat with over the cb every night after work. One of them had a large cb radio antenna on his roof that he was going to replace, and so he asked me if I'd be interested in taking the old one off his hands. I had never met him in person, so I headed over to his house to meet him for the first time, and to take the old antenna off of his roof.

Oddly enough, he didn't have a ladder to get up there. Instead, we had to climb on top of this old swing set he had in the backyard in order to get up onto the roof.

Getting up there was no problem, but getting down from the roof was another story! I figured the easiest way would be for me to sit on the top bar of the swing set, grab hold of the bar, and just do a little summersault or flip and jump off. It sounded easy enough.

So I sat down, grabbed hold of the bar, and began my flip. There was this horrendous RRIIIIIP!!!! As one of the bolts to the swings caught on my jeans and split them open right down the middle! To make matters worse, that same bolt then caught on my belt or belt loop. So..... there I was; about 20 years old, hanging there upside-down by the seat of my pants on this guy's swingset, and I was stuck! After my friend and his brother finally stopped laughing, they helped me down. I just wanted to die right then and there! They've never let me live that one down.