Show Me!

The Legend of Wooley Swamp

But I couldn't believe it.
I just had to find out for myself.
And I couldn't conceive it
'Cause I never would have listened to nobody else.

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I heard that old Charlie Daniels song last Sunday. It enjoyed a few weeks of popularity in 1980 and then was clean forgotten. While I was listening to it, the above passage clicked recognition of a personality fault-benefit I have.

I'm notorious for not believing other people's advice until I prove it for myself.

This was borne out time and again at my work. A girl I worked with, who I'll disguise as LISA, hated that aspect in me. There would be something she needed to tell me, be it information from the morning, a new patient or just a head's up and I would seemingly ignore her and go find out myself. Somehow, she took it personally.

Yeah, I can understand that. But I would tell her, “Lisa, it's not just you who I ignore, I ignore EVERYONE.

That didn't work, she was peeved with me still.

In fourth grade, Miss Enos dubbed me the class “Doubting Thomas.” I was that in spades. I also must have ticked off innumerable adults being so stubborn as well. I couldn't help it. I should've been a scientist, casting doubt on all commonly accepted fundamentals.

Also, I swear my disbelief is tied to my curiosity as well. As a kid, if you told me something that was unbelievable to me, or something that might be dangerous, I just had to find out because confirming something by relying on myself was a endorphin hit for me. Lordy, was I an independent kid. As for being warned of something dangerous, that was all the more fun because adults gravely warned me from even thinking about doing it. They were hiding enjoyment from me!

Here's a stupid thing I and Jimmy once did out of curiosity.

An older kid in our neighborhood once said you could get worms out of the ground by electrocuting them. He told us that if you wrapped a screwdriver shaft with the bare copper of an extension cord, shoved the shaft into the ground, and flipped the switch, worms in a three food radius would come wriggling out of the ground to escape.

When he told us that I called “BULLSHIT” on him. Too late, now I had to find out if this worked. Also, it being a lazy summer day with little to do, why not play with electricity?

Jimmy's Mom worked all day so that left his house all to our own. We found an extension cord from his electric mover, a huge screwdriver, and we went to work. Mind you, we weren't that stupid about electricity, we would set the whole thing up and stand far away from it when we hit the wall switch that controlled the outside outlet.

So, I goad Jimmy to hit the switch while we were both looking out the window. All we heard was this loud, almost vibrating HUM that lasted for about 3 seconds before it went silent. We both waited for hundreds of worms to come out but not a one fled the electric field.

“Ah, he was full of it! Still, that was pretty cool huh? Did you hear that wicked BUZZ?” I said to Jimmy.

We moved back into the room when a few minutes later Jimmy noticed the wall clock was dead, ceiling fan had stopped and when he tried to turn on some lights, nothing happened.

“Jesus! What happened? What did we do!?” he shouted.

We ran downstairs to the circuit breaker box and looked. But we had no idea what went wrong. The obvious solution was to run away and stay away and Jimmy could come home after his Mom pulled into the driveway.

She did finally come home and Jimmy, who had a great poker face, walked into his house as if nothing happened. His Mom asked why wasn't the electricity was working and Jimmy lied through his teeth with a “I don' know.”

His Mom got a neighbor who was an electrician to help her when he said the main bus fuse was shot. He then started questioning her how many appliances she may have had running at once to kill such a powerful fuse. She couldn't answer him. Jimmy was looking on, with a usual 12 year old dumb-as-a-brick face on him.

We got away with it.

And I'm still very curious and still won't believe claims till I find out for myself!