We weren't angels/Wielding an ax

"Bet you can"t"...how many ill advised, youthful activities have started with this challenge? We were at the sandbox just south of the house with Curtis Scott to see if he could successfully accomplish the dare we had issued to him. The sandbox was a square made of 2X10 planks keeping the sand in its rightful place. We had gone into the house to steal the wind up alarm clock that sat on Dad's side of the bed in Mom and Dad's room. The dare went something like this..."Bet you can't chop through that big board in 5 minutes using this ax..." and we were set to go.
Curtis must have been 8 or 9 at the time. He was older than Dennis, but younger than Vic and Dennis at this time would have been 7 or so.
We waited for the big hand to get on an easy to calculate spot for the chop fest to start. Ready, set, go!!! The arms started swinging, the ax was falling and the wood chips were flying. It was an impressive sight to behold. Curtis did not have a lumberjack body though, the sweat started streaming down his face and the heavy breathing soon set in. The blistering pace of the falling ax slowed considerably and the flying wood chips were becoming more the size of sawdust. When we let him know his five minutes were up he wasn't even halfway through the 2X10 and we let out a short hoot of triumph knowing we had given a challenge he couldn't meet... he dropped the ax and walked away without saying anything.
As he walked away I felt the urge to try to finish off the board so I picked up the ax and tried swinging it myself. It was evident after only one swing that this was a feat quite beyond my 5 year old body. The ax hit at a crooked angle and the ax spun out of my grasp.
Dennis tried the same thing, but having the onset of Muscular Dystrophy his body also was not up to the task of ax swinging so there we stood, looking at the ravine now lodged in the middle of that sandbox board. We turned and looked into each others eyes and both had the instant realization that certain adults would not be as thrilled with this activity as we were. Unfortunately for us there was no easy way to glue all those wood chips back together so we put the ax back into the shed and hoped that no one would notice...like that was going to happen! When we were asked if we had chopped the sandbox up we were truthful in saying it wasn't us. When we were asked if we knew who did, the truth came out. We tried to blame it all on Curtis, but all excuses fell on deaf ears when it was found out Dennis and I started the entire fiasco with those convicting words..."Bet you can't"...we reaped the punishment dealt out by the parental justice system of our house...a quick paddling by Dad.