Review: Science Fiction Short Story: "We Didn't Do Anything Wrong, Hardly" by Roger Kuykendall

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The narrator is telling someone how he and Skinny Thompson borrowed a few things—yes, borrowed. They put it all back, especially after his old—his father made him trade back the outboard motor for Mr. Field’s compressor. Of course Mr. Fields said they could use it. Or play with it. Skinny told him they were going build a spaceship with it. Everyone knows you needs compressor on a spaceship. He doesn’t know how the anti-gravity device works. Skinny built it. He also built the radar out of an old television set he found in the attic and the atomic power plant to run it all with. Stinky Brinker watched them build it and kept riding Skinny. So Skinny decided to show him. Stinky watched them blast off… This is a silly little tale told in the voice of a kid who’s in trouble with the authorities. And his dad. And the Soviets, the arch enemy in the Cold War days, were also involved and squawking. But GEEZ, what do they have to complain about? I could find no bio information on the author. He seems to have written only one other story, “All Day September.” Both stories have been frequently anthologized. This story is available from Project Gutenberg and from Librivox as an audiobook: _____ Title: “We Didn’t Do Anything Wrong, Hardly” Author: Roger Kuykendall First published: Astounding Science Fiction May 1959 Source: ISFDB