I was 7 years old, pushing 8.
We had spent the day in Salt Lake City before travelling south into Las Vegas.
On this leg of our trip, the bought used luggage trailer had a bent axle and would strip the rubber off a new tire on a pretty regular basis, especially in the heat of day... It and we experienced two flat tires, which slowed us down immeasurably. The decision was made in Las Vegas to cross the Mojave Desert at night.
Well, there just happened to be a raging wind and sandstorm and my Dad had his hands full trying to keep the high profile rig in one lane. Here comes a State Trooper that had been following us for a while, he pulled us over and made us put up at a truck stop over night until the storm blew over.
Now, even after the sunset it was HOT. Neither the Buicks or the Magic Carpet had air conditioning. I was tired and went to bed early that evening.
Before my Mom and Dad turned in for the night, they left the front door open with just the screen door closed for ventilation.
Next, and this could have been the early creation of how Brinks Home Security got started.
They took out Every pot & pan, piled them on the kitchen counter, tied a string from them and over to the screen door handle, so as any would-be intruder would at least wake us up!
So guess who wakes up thirsty in the middle of the night, stumbles out to the kitchen and streight away sets this crude but very effective devise off!
'HE, double hocky sticks' broke loose, and the pain of the pots & pans bouncing off of my bare toes, and my own family coming at me with rolling pins, baseball bats and guns, you can talk all you want about seeing you're life flash before you're very EYES!!
Oh, and take another guess who was on everyone's dung list for a few days, to boot!