In another lifetime, when television was brand new and mircowaves were years from invention. Way back before Homeland Security, terrorists, political correctness, the internet, video games, recording devices for movies, cell phones and everyone “saving you from yourself” or minding your business, there were simpler times.
In this era of the late fifties and early sixties there were very intelligent and very bored kids.
In my tiny rural town in north Mississippi, there was a small group of boys, my brother included, who were notorious for their mischievous natures and for getting themselves into trouble. Not the kind of trouble of today where one human being is mean to another or hurts someone, but what folks used to call “creative mischief”.
Back in this time period, kids got really cool presents for birthdays and Christmas. Gifts for boys were very science or sports oriented, sports being baseball and football. The science interest was due in part to the space race. Hopefully little boys would grow up to be scientists that would somehow save the world. This being said, the most popular gift of the day was a Chemistry Set.
I doubt if a genuine set could even be found these days, but if one was found it would probably be considered something lethal. These “toys” were not watered down anything. They contained real chemicals, weather instruments, measuring devices, gyroscopes, microscopes and many other small bits and pieces for performing experiments. The goodies came packed in large metal, fold-out cases with a place to store these treasures for future use. Usually they had big bold lettering on the front in bright colors announcing to the world that a kid had scored the ultimate gift.
Also before the internet was the public library. The boys would visit the library for hours in the summertime. It was their research laboratory and only a short bicycle ride away. Maybe you might see where this is headed but parents were oblivious, being more concerned with weekend outings than what their darling children could be doing. Besides, going to the library seemed like a fine idea. They were growing their minds for the next school year.
What the parents didn’t know was that the boys, always fascinated by western movies, dime store spy novels and heroes making their own bullets were studying how to do this. So these quiet children put together the formula to make gun powder! The ingredients at that time were readily available and it wasn’t long before the group began playing and experimenting. By the time school started that year they had become quite expert at small explosive devices, mostly used like fireworks. Not really anything harmful.
Then along came Halloween. One of the boys got the idea to put some gun powder in one of the cannons at the local Civil War monument. They had argued previously over how far a cannon ball could shoot out of a cannon. They discussed circus people being shot out of cannons, all manner of stories ensued. There were all sorts of opinions. And then it happened. One of the group double dog dared the others to prove the cannon would shoot.
It was Halloween evening, late. Scientific curiosity had gone awry. The boys headed to the Civil War monument and there they stuffed their home made gun powder into the barrel of one of the cannons in an effort to prove their scientific theories. Of course they didn’t have any cannon balls so the stuffed the barrel with bodock apples (the grapefruit sized fruit of the southern bodock tree, very hard and green and sticky with a milky substance that oozes out),as many as they could stuff into the barrel.
They picked the skinniest kid to light the homemade fuse as he could run the fastest. The other boys waited patiently across the highway. It was after midnight. Sammy lit the fuse and ran like the wind. He made it just to the edge of the lot when the flash and the resounding boom hit the cool night air.
It sounded as if the Earth had split into! The horse apples (bodock fruit) exploded into a million pieces and splatted out, but the flash from the barrel was a site to behold! The noise was deafening and nearby windows rattled in in their frames in the blackness of the night. The other boys had already made it two blocks down the street before Sammy could get across the highway.
He was the only one to see the caretaker running across the street in his underwear to the still smoking cannon. Running around the monument in circles and swearing like a sailor, seemingly looking to see if anyone had died.
Down the street the boys were fearing death from parents and the retaliation of the Civil War memorial people as they waited for Sammy. When he caught up with them and finally quit swearing, they headed home, each one separately sneaking into the safety of their warm beds.
In the morning they feared the worst but everything was eerily quiet. The explosion didn’t even make the paper.
Later that day when the group finally gathered they breathed a sigh of relief and swore they would never do anything like this again, however as being scared wore off they all related to each other how cool the event had been. Things were quiet for a few days, at least until the following Sunday afternoon when something in our backyard exploded while the preacher was visiting! But that’s a story for another day.
The cannons were welded shut and the chemistry set is gone now, but that gift has lasted a lifetime. And an additional note, the boys were later known to occasionally put cherry bombs in those cannons, experimenting with the intensity of the sound, of course.
My brother is gone now and everyone has scattered to the four winds, but that wonderful chemistry set and those lovely boys will live in my memory and my heart forever.
For my guys, wherever you are : )
Joyce Burns
© Joyce (Tidwell) Burns, ChynaMoon Creations 1997-2011
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