A night without stars......

Good Evening all. I'm happy to have you all reading this, the next post in the life of an average guy that's happy to be here. Welcome!
I've pondered what this post should be about. There is so much to write about that I have trouble deciding. As a teenager we had, as is fairly common, a rivalry with a school from another town not far away. It was a rather friendly rivalry as they go. We played football, basketball, etc against these guys so we knew them rather well. One day we got word that some guys from that particular town was going to raid the watermelon patch of an older man it the neighborhood. The old man was known as a gruff person, but to those of us that knew him well he was a kind and generous man and neighbor. I don't remember exactly who it was but someone tipped him off about the raid. (I swear it wasn't me ) (:-D ) The night as it turned out, was overcast and very dark, a perfect night for the raid. We, some of my buddies and I, anticipating the coming action sneaked into an adjoining pasture to witness the action if there was some. (we were very civic minded) Sure enough, along about midnight or maybe a little sooner, we saw a car pull to a stop on the side of the highway not far away. Now, I have to say here, that we knew the old man was out there somewhere but we didn't know just where. So, we waited and sure enough, they emerged from the little strip of woods that bordered the highway. As they came into the middle of the patch looking for the best melons, and not paying attention, the old man rose from his seat, raised his twelve gauge double barrel shotgun and fired two shots into the air. The sounds of the shots froze everyone, including those of us that were hidden. When the raiders collected their wits, they all turned and sprinted for the strip of woods and ultimately to their car. Did I mention that there was four of the raiders? As they sprinted at breakneck speed out of the field, they vaulted the....Wait....Did I forget about mentioning the barbed wire fence at the edge of the woods. Well, three of them vaulted the fence. The fourth, in his haste, had apparently forgotten about the fence and ran full speed and headlong into one of the more sturdy of the fence posts. The impact not only knocked him out cold, but made those of us that were witnesses a short distance away cringe. We saw the old man walk to where he was and try to lift him. Oh yeah, the other three raiders were long gone. When we saw the old man trying to lift the limp raider we went over and volunteered our services. (it seems that we were all just walking by down the road when all of this transpired) (:-D ) Ok, Ok.....this has a good ending. We carried the victim, or was he a perpetrator, to the old mans house not far away where the old man and his wife made him comfortable until he awakened. They then cleaned up the brave raider and called his parents. We didn't see the point at this juncture of witnessing anything further so we excused ourselves and eased out, but we did stay close till his parents arrived and helped him into the car. None of the witnesses involved ever saw a reason to tell about our parts in the events of the night, so we just never talked about it, except of course, with each other. Sorry guys, but the statute of limitations have long since expired, thus the narrative of this post. To the raiders go my humblest apologizes and my best wishes for more and better success in any other endeavors in their lives. Sweet memories of youth....at least for the witnesses! ......and so it went.......