Egg Rock: Cap'n Jack 's Swampscott Boyhood

Each day as we passed Miss Newcomb's house, I thought back to the year when we were in fourth grade and it was Halloween night.

The man who lived next door was a sea captain and spent most of his time away at sea on freighters of the American-Hawaiian Lines.

However, he was at home on Halloween and he felt his son and the rest of us boys deserved his attention.

So he said, "Do you boys know how to stick pins in doorbells?"

Off we all went in the October darkness to our teacher's home with the Captain.

He told one of the boys how to push the bell and then stick the pin in so that it would keep ringing. As we all stood out in the street the boy rang the bell, but couldn't make the pin stay in.

The captain ran up the front stairs to show him while the rest of us watched from the street.

Slowly a second floor window opened, and a full galvanized pail of water rotated in the darkness, and the Captain was suddenly awash and gasping for breath as he ran toward us.

We all shouted in glee at the sight of this highly respected leader of men who had just been sunk by the 4th grade school teacher.

His trick on her had turned into a treat for us that is remembered for a lifetime.

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This is the second installment from Cap'n Jack. Here is