It’s 9am on a Saturday morning and you’re in your kitchen, sipping coffee and trying to wake up and sober up from a crazy night of drunken naked twister with your neighbors Jim and Linda when suddenly you look out the window and you can’t believe your eyes. There’s 50 individuals dressed in full camouflage and carrying guns walking down your street.
WTH! OH NO… IT’S ARMAGEDDON! I MISSED THE RAPTURE! PUTIN IS ATTACKING!
Wait… hold up for a second, relax. Don’t freak out just yet.
Is it maybe possible that you and your vintage Volvo station wagon with the Flux Capacitor just somehow traveled back in time to my neighborhood in 1988?
If this is the case, then don’t worry. It’s not Putin.
It’s just me and my friends, and they’re just BB guns. We left our real ones at home today. Maybe tomorrow.
We are on our way to the woods behind your house to play war and shoot at each other.
It’s ok don’t worry. You’re safe, and we’ll try not to shoot your windows or each other’s eyes out. But I can’t promise ya.
Let the real Hunger Games begin. 😎
Ok… enough with the time travel. Let me really take you back to 1988.
Often on the weekends, all the guys in my neighborhood would get together in the woods and play war or capture the flag. Usually we would have around 10 people on a team and there was normally like 40 or more of us.
Everyone had BB guns. And many were high-powered pump rifles.
We had a 3-pump rule and no shooting in the face or manhood.
But those rules weren’t always followed. Luckily though, no one ever lost an eye, but many got wounded and ended up digging BB’s and pellet shrapnel out from under their skin.
And I’m willing to bet that still today some guys have trouble going through the metal detectors at airports. lol
Seriously though, it was no joke man. It was intense. Fight or flight. All-out survival. People were trying to literally freaking hurt you… shoot you and make you bleed. You had to play smart. Lol
It was real life Hunger Games.
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© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson. All rights reserved.
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Heart of Loia `'.,°~ 
A wild throwback packed with humor, nostalgia, and chaos! 😄 The storytelling really captures the intensity and the questionable wisdom of those unforgettable neighborhood adventures. Great read! 👏
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Thanks Vijay, I’m glad you enjoyed it 😁
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we did that in the 70s it was not capture the flag it was just shoot at your friend.
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Haha oh yeah, your the original OG’s. We did a lil of both. Sometimes we would do teams and just shoot at each other and sometimes we’d play “every man for himself” and that was just chaos lol
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the worst are when the BB curves in such a way that it hits the guy inside the nose or right in the mouth lol
Mike
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Oh No! You sound like you’re speaking from experience 😂
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lol no i’ve seen it happen and i do feel bad, i really do. but sometimes…when it happens to the right person there’s that chuckle that builds up.
nevertheless, it was full face helmets for me, i’m not trying to get shamed like that haha
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Haha I feel ya. One time I was maybe 13 and my buddy bent over to pick something up and I shot him in the butt and it hurt like hell I’m sure lol but I took off running and him and two other of my friends chased me down and caught me and he shot me back also in the butt. It broke the skin and hurt like crazy 😂
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hahaha!
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