I've been wanting to tell this story for a while. One of the dumbest things (among a long list) I have ever done.
One Boring summer evening in deans circle, Deanboy and I were, bored. As we walked around the block, we stopped at the drainage grate at the corner of Changs, across from Calbs. One of us had a pack of matches, and decided to try to build a fire at the bottom of the drainage catch basin. We collected sticks, paper and Iron wood needles for the burn, and piled them up at the bottom. We tossed match after match down the hole, but couldn't get it to burn. We lit paper, tossed it down, no luck. Exhausted I had an idea. Deanboy and i went behind my house. picked up a gallon (glass A&W rootbeer ) jug of gasoline, and poured down the hole. Surely this would get this fire to burn. We lit a match and threw it down the hole, no luck. so we lit paper, threw it down, no luck. try after try, no fire. I lit the whole pack of matches, tossed it down, no fire. We were perplexed.
As we sat on the curb next to the hole, saddened, bored and wondering what to do next.
BOOOOM! The ground shook, the grate lifted up as a flame shot 10 feet in the air. We went running.
The glass jug caught fire and was rolling down the street towards the Shooks driveway.
scared to death I ran after it . Then "Haw Haw I'm going to tell Dad Ha Ha" came from the bushes across the street. My bro Chris was there watching us the whole time.
How stupid we were. We were lucky we didn't have our faces over that grate when it went off. Deanboy, sorry for putting you in such danger, however as you all remember so well, Boring nights at Deans Circle brought out the best...stupid, in all of us.
Chris never told dad...I don't think.
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10 comments:
Nice story Dan! These are the kind that I like to read about! Memories, even of not of mine personally, love to hear memories of my old friends about happenings in the Circle.
We (Sean, Dave and I) have a very simular story. I'm not a good story teller of things that happened in the past. So if iether one of my brothers are reading...do you want to tell the story of the burning gallon of gasoline and Dad walking home.
dan you two were very lucky. boys will be boys huh lol.
I acquired a couple of Sam's big rocket engines one day, then emptied all the highly explosive gunpowder into a big pile on one of the bus stop benches. I also went through a whole pack of matches trying to get it lit. Finally on the last match WHOOOOOOFFFFFFF!!!!!!
I burned the crud out of my hand and had blisters on my fingers for weeks. Man that hurt, but it sure left a nice burn hole in the bus stop bench. I learned the true meaning of STUPID that day.
Hey Chris, by the way, what were you doing in the bushes over by the Shook's house?
Ric, you must be talking about the time we dug a hole in our front yard. We filled it with gasoline and lit it a fire. It was one of the coolest things we had ever done, until our dad come walking down the street. We paniced and one of us poored water on it. Ooooopps, wrong thing to do.
Well, dad walked by as if he had seen nothing. He must have been thinking, "boys will be boys".
Oh, the "We" I just refered to was Me, Ric, and Sean.
And Sean was big into the rockets. We emptied some out, I think on the curb and lit them. It just seemed much more fun to use them to shoot things in the air.
that is a great story!! true Dean Circle lore!
Dave - I remember your fingers, they were the size of pickles. I was waiting for you to bring that one up - it must have hurt like . . .
DRL - yes, that was the time. I remember him walking down the road with, head in the clouds like a good professor. I really don't think he was aware at all that we almost burned down the front yard. There were pine needles everywhere - by all rights it should have gone up in a flash.
A bit later, I learned how to make gunpowder from my "way things work book". We made many smoke bombs after. One time we sent up a model rocket packed with a baggie of gasoline instead of a chute. boom.
As a father, my first reaction would be to beat my sons butt for setting a fire with gasoline in the front yard or in a drainage drain! Our fathers probably knew very well what we had done or what we were doing. They must have loved us a lot for not punishing us for what we did! They knew back then (in the day) that natural consequences out weighted emediate punishment. Sure miss my Dad!
I'll let Dean know about this story.Maybe then he might log on!!!
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