Peashooters Happy Here
7/9/56

John Rayner, aged 5, of London, England, is nothing but a troublemaker. It was he who went running to his daddy last week complaining that only about one dried pea in 20 would pass through his new peashooter.

Maj. John W. Rayner of the British War Office issued a blunt statement: "In my youth, peas fitted peashooters perfectly. Have peas grown larger or peashooters smaller nowadays?"

The resulting controversy drew rejoinders from the British Toy Makers Assn. and pea-producing firms -- but it's all a tempest in a pea-pot, as far as Charlotte is concerned.

After an exhaustive survey today, The News can report there is no shortage of peashooters in Charlotte (though, to be sure, they are mass produced in Chicago, Ill, and are red, white and blue USA peashooters, not English) and that the ammo fits perfectly.

Only one mid-town dime store sells them, but they go like hot cakes at a nickel apiece. A packet of peas, marked "250 shots of SUPERB SPEED ammunition for peashooters," costs another nickel.

The shooters are foot-long plastic tubes about a quarter-inch in diameter -- a far cry from the bamboo sections of your childhood, perhaps, but then things have changed.

The modern peashooter is deadly accurate, with an effective range of 35-50 feet, depending on the size of the pea and the lungs of the user.

A poll of Charlotte News street salesman Billy Jackson, 10, Bobby Luther 14, and Donald Brooks, 13, developed some dope on their use that you find in any encyclopedias.

"Those little peas in the package are okay," Bobby said.

"Yeah, but field peas are better," Donald said.

"Sixteen cents a bag at the grocery store," Billy said.

"I shot a pigeon one time," Bobby said. "You ought to have seen him jump."

"I shot a boy in the back of the head in school," Donald said. "The teacher took mine away and said she was going to burn it."

"You know what makes the best ammunition?" Billy asked.

"Empty .22 cartridges," Bobby said.

"Me and Bobby used to have fights," Donald said. "He'd stand in front of the New Yorker, and we'd shoot right over cars . . . "

Had they seen the story about the London five-year-old's troubles?

"Yeah," Bobby said. "He must have been trying to shoot butter beans."

"He just didn't know what he was doing," Donald said.

"He was too little to be fooling with them anyhow," Billy said.

That takes care of John Rayner.

Next case.

Charles Kuralt's People (Kenilworth Media, copyright 2002)
ISBN 0-9679096-1-9 | Hard cover | 384 pages with photos | $25.95

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