The Day I Split My Pants

Pennsylvania preserves farms in 20 counties - Farm and Dairy
Countryside in Strinestown area
When Joe and I were young boys we loved going to our Aunt and Uncle's farm in Strinestown PA. At the time they farmed about 90 acres with much of it being pasture for their herd of cows. They had a stream on their property, fruit trees, a garden, pigs, chickens and lots of hay and silage.

Strinestown, York County, Pennsylvania near the Susquehanna River
Uncle Doll and Aunt Helen had 3 boys - Dean who was my age, Troy who was Joe's age and a younger brother Carson. They had their chores every morning and evening but in between they had a lot of time to play. This blog post is about one of those times we were playing.
PA farmstead | Summersrun's Blog
Their farm looked a lot like this one
It must have been the late summer or early fall of the year because we were playing out behind the barn in a pear tree. The tree was literally next to one of the pastures, defined by electric fence that ran next to the tree. The 4 or 5 of us had climbed the tree and were eating pears; goofing off as young boys will do when someone pushed me. I fell out of the tree straddling the electric fence. Boy did that hurt! Jumping off the fence (I still don't know how I did it) I was burning in that sensitive part of the body so I tried running to the farmhouse where the adults were visiting. There was only one problem - the electric fence had split my pants! There was a left half and a right half. Have you ever tried running when you have to hold up both sides of your pants?

To put it mildly I was hurting, embarrassed and about 200 yards away from the farmhouse. I wasn't happy. So let me make this recommendation - never straddle an electric fence. It really hurts and you might lose your pants.

UPDATE: Our 3rd cousin's name was corrected.

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