posted
I have been mulling around whether to admit the stupidity of this story, especially because of my own sheer stupidity, and the fact that under the Homeland Security Act, I would probably be thrown in jail.
But here goes.
I was out in the woods with three friends (one is now a cop, one a teacher, and the other, a physician) and we decided to light off some fireworks, including some "homemade" ones. The main constituency in our arsenal was the average bottle rocket, while I pocketed some very dangerous explosives in a hooded sweatshirt. You can visualize the nice big front pocket, right?
Well the cop decides he is going to start a bottle rocket war and begins to light them off in his hand and aims them at the three of us, which is unfair, since I have no bottle rockets, and the explosives would blow him into chunks.
Somehow, one of his won bottle rockets deflects off the ground and shoots back in his general direction. He turns sideways and spins, and the bottle rocket miraculously ignites an entire pack of bottle rockets he had sticking out of his rear pants pocket.
We actually stood and giggled for about 1 second as he ran around in a cropcircle as his rear end was popping off like something from Little Rascals . Then the teacher wised up and we tackled him and put him out.
After about ten minutes, I realized it could have been me and 3 homemade bombs that could have been ignited, and I would, of course, be dead.
The cop ended up in the emergency room and had to slather silver sulfadiazine cream on his butt for a week, but was not permanently harmed.
And just last night, we were out putting off bottle rockets...
posted
An appreciation for life and a realization of just how easy it is to ruin a life are perspectives that come with experience.
I'll refrain from recounting my teenage angst and the many narrow misses I've had behind the wheel.
I don't think there is a singular solution to preventing teen death and injury - the best you can do is make sure they understand the realities of "wow, that could have been me."
It's one thing to see a picture of a car wreck, it's another to be within arms' reach. And then there's always the morgue if you really want to take the "scared straight" approach.
posted
This past weekend I was watching some of my friends stick firecrackers in an ant nest. It was really cool watching the dirt fly. But they seemed surprised that the ants were biting them all over. Posts: 4174 | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
By the way, that wasn't the first time I've been to a "professional" fireworks show where things went wrong.
Posts: 1794 | Registered: Jul 2002
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![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
It was really cool watching the dirt fly. But they seemed surprised that the ants were biting them all over. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Wow, and I thought I was wasting my teenage years playing video games. *shudder*
