Malcolm's Shotgun

As Told by Richard LeSueur, Recalled in part by Malcolm "Chip" LeSueur

"He talked about when he was a little boy growing up in Wyoming and how he used to ride around with his dad from place to place and that Grandpa Malcolm had (I didn't know this) but he had a collection of rifles and shotguns, and he had this one particular shotgun that Chip wanted to shoot as a little boy (he couldn't remember how old he was but I'm going to guess 8). I think this is one of those shotguns that they don't even make anymore. So, they're driving along and he's begging Grandpa Malcolm to let him shoot this shotgun and Grandpa Malcolm finally pulls over and says "Okay." They were on some back road, and he went and set this tin can on a post and Grandpa Malcolm knew what was going to happen, but Chip fires this shotgun and he says that it just knocked him right on his butt, and that he blew the can to smithereens, but he had this deep bruise on his shoulder 3 weeks afterwards. So, what's funny to me about this story is, I remember being a kid about 8 years old driving on a back road with my dad, Chip, and I WASN'T begging to shoot a shotgun, but he pulled over on the side of the road and he said "How would you like to shoot a shotgun?" And I said "Yeah, sure, I'd love to. So, I go put this tin can on a post and I go to shoot this shotgun and it knocks me on my butt. I'm laying there wondering what's happened, I think I'm dead, and there's Chip over there cackling away like no other."