The woods are lovely dark and deep ...
The wood's dead end at 33rd and Miles St.
Within a few feet of our home was the woods . Miles Street dead ended at
the entrance of the woods . 33rd street raced by them . This was an area of
undeveloped land quite narrow that went about two blocks .
It was the place of mystery , adventure and testing of various home made
explosive devices . A winding path made its way through the entire length of the
woods , with little trails going off to the right and to the left .
We could play there for hours , games of hide and seek , Games of war , and
scientific discovery .
I belive it was Rex who first introduced us to the possibilities of
explosives . Rex was from Missouri and after one retrun trip home He came back
with Fireworks . These were real fireworks . not the fake fireworks sold in
Oregon at the time , but real storm the beaches of the pacific kind of fire
works ..Big red Fireworks about half the size of a stick of Dynamite , (we
assumed) . Cherry Bombs and M 80 's . Fire works that could make an entire
sleepy Neighborhood wake up and take notice .
We had found a tree with very soft wood , somehow we got the idea this was
a Balsa Tree , but Balsa trees are native to Mexico and this was the Northwest ,
but we named it a Balsa tree so a Balsa tree it was . With relative ease we
could dig a hole in the tree then place the Firecracker in the tree . One of us
would then light a match , which in turn would light the fuse , hiding behind
foliage we would watch the carnage . The explosion would tear off huge chunks of
tree , the Dense woods would muffle the sound of the explosion. This was very
cool up to a point . The point was when even the biggest Fireworks failed to
provide sufficient damage for our tastes . We tried ( unsuccessfully ) to bind
two or more beefy firecrackers together ..but in variably one would explode
before the others , this wasting the power and depriving us lurking behind
failed logs the benefit of a massive boon.
At this point I believe it was me who had the idea of combining the
Gunpowder from several Fire Crackers into one Larger Fire Cracker ..but we
discovered that it wasn't as easy to get the power out of the firecracker as we
thought . and to make matters worse we were running to of Fireworks . Rex had
not brought enough back home ... to Rex's credit I don;t believe He was being
selfish I don't t think any of us had any idea how many Fireworks it would take
to bring down a 60 foot tree .
I then had the idea of using some of my fathers ammunition to make our own
Fireworks . I considered asking my Father if I could use a box of shells. But
decided He would get angry with me for asking so I decide it would be better to
" borrow " some of His ammunition instead .
Some readers may have noticed the flaw in my reasoning ..Apparently I felt
it would be much worse to ask my dad directly , than it would be for him to
catch me stealing ammo.
Now the problem was how to do just that ...this wasn't going to be one
crime it was essentially going to be several . Breaking into my parents Bedroom
was a given ..but how to remove 12 Bullets from a box that contained 24 and make
it look like nothing had happened was the real issue . Fortunatly even at this
young age I was able to create a reasonable plan. I began by removing just one
bullet .
I can't remember exactly how my thinking process was working at this point
. I do remember trying to remove the bullet from the cartridge by using a pair
of pliers , I also did not own pliers but my dad kept them safe in His tool box
in the Garage where We wern't supposed to go ..but once you start on a life of
crime there is no stopping you . The pliers didn't work ..neither did the Hack
saw I also borrowed ,,I was smart enough to realize the heat from the Hack saw
might have an adverse affect on the bullet so my friend Wheezy poured water over
the Jacket as I sweated away , ( up until the Hacksaw moment rex had been with
us , but suddenly He felt the need to go home ). The water worked ..too well
and the powder was soaked . It was then I remembered my dads Shotgun , and more
importantly the Shot gun Shells ...Another trip back into the bedroom ..this
time in search of shotgun shells .. This idea might work after all !. The
shotgun shells were much easer to dig into ..and after several trips to the
Bedroom I had a pretty decent amount of Gun powder ..mixed in with a few stray
pellets . I had decided to remove 10 of the 24 shells in the Box and I wisely
removed only the ones in the middle .
Now I had Powder and needed something to put it in ..something that would
be easy to pack and at the same time easy to ignite . My Brother had a Hop along
Cassidy Six shooter he rarely used ..and I knew where he hid it to keep me from
playing with it . I had an idea the cartridge from the bullet would easily fit
in the barrel and if I sawed off the barrel We could pack the gun powder in the
barrel . The tricky part would be to find a way of capping the end we stuffed
the powder in and then still being able to attach a fuse .
I suspect I need to remain mute here ...things have changed and in no way
am i going to even hint how we managed to put it all together . I do remember at
one point as I was hammering the shell into the Barrel of Bobs now well used
pistol that the bullet was still " live " . but I went easy with the ball peen
hammer . in just a matter of hours Wheezy and I had a Hop along Cassidy Barrel
Bomb and were eager to try it out in the woods ...we looked outside and it was
dark ...there was only one thing left to do ...bury the evidence . Thinking
quickly we buried behind the Pigeon Coop In the Vegetable garden . That night it
was hard to sleep ...I was excited about the prospect of the test firing of our
contraption. We had also hidden the bomb in the Tree Fort ,,it seemed unwise for
me to take it in the House ...That night was pretty normal at one point Bob came
out to inquire if anyone had seen His new Gun , mom Got on Him for losing His
stuff ...He was always losing stuff ...
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