Chapter 6: Boys will be boys

While I was growing up, safety was the least of our worries. There were no bicycle helmets. Seatbelts were not “cool.” BB guns were popular. Riding in the back of a pickup truck was common. Today parents have a list of safety procedures for their kids to follow. Don’t get me wrong, I think that safety is important. I remember watching MTM (Max-Tyler-Marlo) riding their bikes, skateboards or electric scooter, my heart would skip a beat now and again. I guess in the old days we would live by the maxim, “If it doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger.”

My dad’s greatest hobby was shooting. He was the national champion pistol shooter in the year I was born – 1948. He would reload bullets and sell them to his friends as a way to pay for his hobby. We would gather the bullet casings at the firing range. After removing the used primers, the brass casings would then be polished in a machine. The next steps would be to insert new primers, add the gun powder and then attach the lead bullets. We made the lead bullets by melting down lead weights used to balance car tires.

We had many containers of different types of gun powder in our basement. We would occasionally “steal” some of the powder and go outside and burn it. My brother got caught taking some powder. He was in big trouble. The next time, I told him that you have to take just a little from each container so dad wouldn’t notice anything missing. Also, be sure to clean up after. Everything on the workbench had to be in the right place and be sure to clean up and spilt powder.

We had a pile on sand in our backyard that my dad used to make concrete. We put an old aluminum drainpipe in the sand at an angle. The pipe was about four feet long and had a diameter of about four inches. To light the powder, we decided to drop a burning cigarette down the pipe. Nothing happened. Our good friend and neighbor, George, took a quick peek down the pipe. He said that the burning tip of the cigarette was facing up. We wiggled the pipe a little. Still, nothing happened. He took another peek and “whoosh!” the powder ignited. George yelled and covered his face with his hands. My brother and I were scared. We thought that he was blinded. He turned toward us and moved his hands from his face. My brother and I burst into laughter. He was angry. We said sorry, but his face was black two big white eyes and white teeth. He ran crying to his house and ran into the bathroom. When he looked into the mirror, he too started laughing. It looked like his face was covered with coffee grains. We were lucky that the pipe was long, so the powder cooled a little before it hit his face.

We would also have BB gun fights. We wore old military long trench coats. We wanted to be “safe.” But we didn’t think about wearing safety goggles. Goggles would be more important that wearing heavy clothing. Getting hit in the eye would have definitely blinded someone.

There are many more stories of dumb things kids do. I guess we were all lucky that nobody died or were seriously injured.

Here is a photo of a trench coat similar to what we wore.