What I Did Last Summer: Fact or Fiction bloghop

(If you're here for #GUTGAA, scroll down or click here.)

Welcome to this fact-or-fiction bloghop, hosted by the lovely Emily King and me! To recap: the point of this hop is to read two stories posted by each participant and decide which one is true, and which one is false.

The stories must be under 500 words and about something that happened one summer - it doesn't have to be this summer. I've put my first one below (the second one goes up Wed.)...and even though Emily and I aren't participating for prizes (which are posted here for the fiction winner, and here for the fact winner), it'll be fun to see who(m) I fooled!

So vote "fact" or "fiction" in the comments for my story, then hop around the others' blogs and vote for real. I can't wait to see what the rest of you have come up with. *evil cackle* Since most of us write fiction, I'm hoping to spot some whoppers! not the candy kind...although I do take bribes...

The buffalo-chip blooper

 

When I was growing up, my family spent summers at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota because my dad was a park ranger. Each year, the ranger families put together a festival that featured all kinds of silly games, costumes (I went as a mosquito one year), scavenger hunts and - this being park-ranger-land - a huge campfire at night where we all roasted s'mores and sang songs like "Ghost Riders in the Sky."

A buffalo chip, prior to throwing

        The most favorite of all silly games was a buffalo chip throwing contest. For weeks, rangers would collect the huge patties of buffalo poop and set them out to dry. They turned into these flat, Frisbee-like wedges of dung that were surprisingly light. Then we'd all fling them across a field to see who could throw the farthest.

 

My job the year I was nine was to measure. So after the poop landed, I'd take the end of a tape measurer and call the number to the score keeper. Only one time, I didn't move far enough out of the way and a contestant threw his chip right at my head. I was, of course, dancing around in my mosquito costume completely oblivious to the buffalo sh** coming at me...until it hit me smack in the face. And the chip wasn't completely dried. It had a liquified center - a bit like a jelly donut - that smashed right into my nose. Also, my mouth was open.

 

So....fact or fiction??  Tell me your vote in the comments...then go forth to the others on the linky and do likewise.