If it made noise, caused a concussive force, and left behind a cloud of combusted gasses and smoke; it was a great thing to behold.
Once in a great while, my brothers and I would get our hands on some firecrackers. Every now and then, something a little bit more impressive. Each occasion was the greatest of all events as far as we were concerned. We would carefully hide them from the prying eyes of those who would deprive us of our treasures.
Those villains were known simply as “Mom” and “Dad”.
You see, Mom and Dad stood united against our so called “indiscriminant” use of explosives. Not united in reason perhaps, but united in result.
Our mother was worried that we would injure ourselves while playing around with some explosive device or other. And, as far too few of the devices we detonated had any manufacturing experience or mathematical reasoning involved in their fabrication, there was I must admit some basis for that concern. Dad on the other hand was far more worried that we would damage something he would then have to repair or replace.
The upshot though, was that there was no “under adult supervision” involved in our examination of the science of explosions, and our post-graduate investigations into ballistics and aerodynamics as applied to rockets.
Each time Mom and Dad were out of the valley on a trip to buy some new appliance or other home improvement item, my brothers and I would make a bee line for our hidey holes to pull out our explosive stashes. World War II prisoners of war could have learned a thing or two from us about hiding contraband. I have seen miniature radios hidden in canteens that couldn’t compare to the ingenious ways we hid our goodies.
We would haul them all out of their various locations (never hide all of anything valuable in a single location) and dump them together on the kitchen table to take inventory. Then with some figuring as to how soon we might be able to resupply, we would argue and dicker over how many and which we were going to detonate that day.
Selections made, the remainder were returned to their various places of concealment. This precaution served two purposes. First, it kept us from a free fall rapid fire exploda-thon that would leave us “boomless” for the foreseeable future. And second, if we were caught in the act, we could claim that those devices that remained in our possession were our last ones we had and thus save the remainder for future days.
Our adventures included firecrackers, M-80s, smoke bombs, homemade cannons and rocket ships, homemade explosive powders, and the extraordinary potassium metal and sodium metal when we could get them.
And yes, as mom feared, there are tales to tell of injuries. Damaged hearing, and numb fingers, stinging eyes, and seared skin.
And yes, as dad feared, there are tales to tell of damage great and small, known and unknown.
But, the damages were in most cases reasonably limited, and for the most part, some 40 years later, the marks and scars are difficult to find.
While the joys and memories live on.
Copyright © 2013 Marty Vandermolen
No comments:
Post a Comment