Jul. 07, 2003 - 22:08 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Make It Last

The thunder mumbled off into the late night of the Fourth Of July back then and we as little kids were allowed to stay up and watch the goodies. Back then I never could understand why we had to get up the same time every morning of summer vacation as we did during school. Now after five progeny and a lifetime of work it is quite easy for me to understand. Good habits are important and we must not mess with Mother Natures Circadian Rhythm - she said with a frown.

Being up so late the night of the Fourth, most of us were allowed to sleep in next morning. But with the new day and breakfast downed we went on the prowl. We would meet and begin to scrounge the yards, alleys and streets of our neighborhood looking for unexpended fireworks. The duds we found we would break open and pour the powder into a can, later we would find a relatively safe way to make some home made bangs of our own from that effort. And we usually found enough viable pyrotechnics to make some fairly loud noises too.

Then to keep things going we would pool our pennies, go to the hardware store and buy all the carbide we could for the money we had. (Carbide, an ingredient that produces acytelene gas -- like in the cutting torches). In our day there were still quite a few miners working who bought carbide to put in their miners lamps they wore on their hard hats. So the hardware stores stocked it.

Each of us would have a store of cans that nested or had a press fit lid to use in this operation. So we made our own fun. The larger can of two would have a nail hole on the perimeter at the bottom. A few rocks of carbide and a bunch of spit in the bottom of the big can and then the smaller can would be put in place in the bigger can. The apparatus was aimed in the desired direction and a lit match applied to the vent hole in the big can.

There would be a quite satisfying POP and the nested can would be propelled high enough to make us happy. We would spend hours experimenting with various sizes of cans and the tightness of nesting as well as the quantities of carbide and spit applied each time. We were trying for the loudest bang and highest altitude we could get. Naturally, endless discussions would ensue with a tad of disputation on the various merits of any combination of any of it. We were deep in scientific palaver I guess you might say.

Occasionally a set of cans, too tightly fit and with perhaps a trifle more carbide and spit than absolutely necessary would cause a can to burst with a zinger of a noise. They say that God protects fools and drunks, and for a time maybe he does. But we were under His protection long enough to grow out of that habit before any of us got blown up or blinded. Of course the cans that burst always seemed to make the greatest of the big bangs.

As usual that mode of recreation would die naturally when the supply of any of the pieces, parts and ingredients ran out. -- till next time.

But you know, we did all we could to keep the explosions going in an effort to Make It Last . . . . . . . . . . .

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