The kids that live behind my mom's house often play basketball in our driveway and have an understanding with mom--as long as there are no cars parked in the driveway they are allowed to play. For a few years now this agreement has been respected and there hasn't ever been a problem until this particular day! Mom said that it was a little after dark and she 
could hear the ball bouncing and the kids talking and laughing from the office (which is the closest room to the driveway)where she was checking her email. All of the sudden she heard the loudest, strangest noise followed by a reverberating crash and silence. She knew the sound was way wrong and started toward the door when the front door bell started ringing incessantly. When she got outside she couldn't believe what she saw! The 
basketball hoop had literally snapped in half and was bent to the ground in a triangle hanging on in the middle by a thin piece of metal and right next to it laying flat on her back was the 11year old girl! Come to find out that it didn't just spontaneously break the boys had "helped" it by jumping from the top of the fence to the rim and swinging like monkeys. After a few jumps the basketball hoop that had been around for more than 15 years 
couldn't it. The pole cracked in half with the momentum and came crashing down towards the concrete hitting the girl on the head and knocking her to the ground on the way! The girl was crying and my mom was trying to see if she was bleeding when the boys finally quit ringing the doorbell and came back around. Mom sent the boys to get their parents and once they arrived it was determined 
that although there was no blood she had a headache and wasn't feeling well. Her parents decided to take her to the ER just to be sure. The next day I went over to Mom's house to deal with the 4 foot portion of the pole that remained with jagged edges. After a phone consult with Wayne I took a hacksaw to the pole being careful not to go deeper than the metal because Wayne said making contact with the concrete would instantly ruin the blade! I sawed around about half of the pole as near to the ground as possible without grinding off my knuckles and then took a sledge hammer to the pole! It was great for anger management although it took a few tries...sawing, sledging, sawing, sledging and finally success! I then took the sledge hammer to the last half inch of the pole to curl the leftover edges so that it was as low to the ground and as 
smooth as possible so it was not a tripping hazard. As we were making a ruckus the kids from next door stopped by and the poor little girl said that she was alright but she definitely had a black eye and cheek and said the doctors diagnosed a mild concussion. Luckily nothing a bit of Tylenol and an ice pack couldn't cure! The boys were very apologetic for breaking the hoop and using it 
truly hurt by this crazy incident but
also glad that it was caused by horseplay because the kid's parents were apologetic about the broken property. The basketball hoop was of-course the least of our worries because in the back of our minds we worried about getting sued as it happened on mom's property! So all is well that ends well...there just won't be any more half court press in Mom's driveway.
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