I have covered our fascination with pyrotechnics in
former earlier missives. This is yet another instance of our fun with
fireworks. Although at times we did “get bitten” by them as this story will
relate. I, suppose as kids, the danger our parents and all other adults warned
us about playing with fireworks, our sense of excitement was all the more
acute. Although I still have a natural affinity to fireworks of all kinds, it has
waned “somewhat” over the years, while my interest in firearms of all kinds has
grown. This is especially true for pistols. I’m presently eagerly filling out
my application for a Concealed Firearm Permit and am rejoicing that thanks to
Republicans finally in the majority, I can at last exercise my 2nd
Amendment rights! I even started filling out the application way before the law
was finally approved last week! Anyhooo, about 10 years ago when I was
in Tennessee, I went into a fireworks store that seemed the size of a Wal-Mart!
There were aisles and aisles of every kind of fireworks I could have ever
imagined. I bought several grosses of bottle rockets (“Moon Rakers” which are
the best), various sizes of firecrackers, and “Jumping Jacks”. I STILL have
about 300 or so bottle rockets and various firecrackers left in a paper bag!
(See pic below). This would have been unheard of in my youth, since we would
have shot them all up in no time. Recently when I was at the International
Buckskin Horse Association Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, I spied a big
fireworks store right next to the gas station I stopped at for fuel. In my
youth I would have manically ran into it and spent every cent of remaining
money I had. This time I just casually looked over at it and then looked away
without even the slightest tinge of excitement! (Well, I must admit, as I think
about it now, there was a “little” tinge of fleeting excitement…). During our “Fireworks Golden Years” as kids we used to do all
kinds of dangerous things with firecrackers and cherry bombs. If you haven’t
read about this, you are invited to read, “Our Mothers Were Right” at this point. We used to get, among other
types of firecrackers, “Ladyfingers”, which were really small and had a noise
about twice as loud as a cap pistol. Denny Moon was the first to hold one
between his thumb and forefinger and let it explode! Although we all laughed
whenever he did it and there was no apparent cuts, or pain, or any adverse
effects, I don’t recall either Tim or myself ever doing this. This MAY have
been AFTER Tim’s bad result with a cherry bomb at Burnham’s Pond (which is
described in the above-linked earlier story). I shall now get to the main
thesis of this missive and describe one of my “scars” from playing with
fireworks. On many occasions, I used to take some of my plastic “Army Men” with
accompanying equipment such as tanks, trucks, jeeps, etc. out to the garden and
scatter them out then subject them to a massive “artillery attack” of thrown
firecrackers. I would also bury a firecracker under an “Army Man” and/or a tank
for a “mine” going off. A normal firecracker would just flip over the tank or
“Army Man”. If we had any cherry bombs around I would bury them under a guy or
tank and that would REALLY send them flying! The cherry bombs were thus used
when I called in a 16 inch Naval bombardment when the “enemy” was threatening
to overrun my position. One time as I was engaged in this type of warfare Tom
Bittner showed up and he and Tim came out to reinforce my naval and artillery
units. (I have a slide of this VERY EVENT, but until I can get the means to
scan slides on my scanner, I won’t be able to post it here. RATS !!!). I’m really weakening to just going out and
finding one and just BUY it! All you faithful fans will be greatly rewarded
when I do this, indeed! The reason that all of our “Golden Teen Years” pictures
when we did about 90% of all the roughly 150 previously posted stories was that
my mother said that slides were cheaper to develop then than prints were!
Anyway, when Tim and Tom added to the massive artillery barrage, it totally
wiped out all the enemy and their equipment. After the “battle” while we were
rolling with laughter, Tom noticed I had a firecracker inside my shirt packet.
Before I knew what happened, he lit a piece of fuse and threw it in my pocket
with the firecracker! The firecracker fuse lit and before I could react and try
to pull it out of my pocket and throw it at him, it “went off” in my
pocket! Fortunately for me it was a “dud” in that instead of blowing up, it
fired out the end for 3 or 4 seconds like a rocket or blowtorch right through
my shirt and into my chest! Whew! That
“smarted”! I still have a round white scar on my chest to this day! I tried to take a picture of it with my
digital camera, but I couldn’t get it to contrast clearly enough with my hairy
chest! I thought about shaving it to get a better image, but quickly ruled that
out! As accident prone as I am, I was afraid of leaving another scar! All and
all, I think we all fared very well considering all the numerous dangerous
things we did with not only fireworks, but ALL things throughout our very
daredevil “kid years”! Alas, only the good die young, indeed…
