My dad always loved to spook me and my siblings with a scary story. And the true stories were always the scariest.

The story that always gave us a thrill was when he was stung by hornets. Yikes.
Last year, while scanning images from our family cabin in Mendocino county, I came across a picture of this very incident. My dad didn’t even know there was a picture!

Pictured here, dad is crying as my grandmother rubs baking soda and water all over his face.
Here’s the story in my dad’s words:

“I was 5 years old. That day I followed my big brothers into the woods and had a hard time keeping up. We went up this hill that went across our land then slid down. It was always fun sliding down the hills because they were covered with fallen leaves. When we got to the end of the hill, there was a 10 foot drop and then the road at the bottom. When I reached the drop, I was too scared to jump so I sat there yelling at my brothers as they were laughing and teasing me. Little did I realize, I was sitting on top of a hornets nest. Hornets suddenly began attacking me! I was wearing my bear coat with my hood tied around my face, so only my face was exposed. They stung me across my forehead, along my cheeks and inside my mouth as I was screaming! I was stung 27 times! My brother Stephen saw what was happening and had me jump down into his arms. He ran me back to the cabin and my mother rubbed baking soda and water all over my face. And as a treat afterwards, she let me spend the afternoon eating sweet pickles outside.”

Anderson Valley, Mendocino County, California, 1970.

~shared by @thecrandallfilmproject