"Jon Anderson" wrote in message
. ..

That brings back a memory... Late 70's, used to go out to a
somewhat remote beach north of Santa Cruz for July 4th fun
with a friend from work. We had, uh, imported fireworks...
fun stuff up to 1" rockets and M-80's. We were launching
M-80's with a wrist rocket. Now, I'd been burned pretty good
by 'safe and sane' Red Devil fireworks when I was about 12,
under the supervision of my parents no less. Still played
with fire, but played with a lot of respect.

My friend gripes that I'm releasing too soon, mine are going
off just above the water where his go off high up.

Well, after he's launched about 30, I finally suspend common
sense. Against my instincts, I get set and my eyes are
locked on the fuse about 1/4" from the case. When it burns
to that point, I'm releasing. Tom lights the fuse, and
FOOOSH, I'm staring at nothing but burned fuse less than a
foot from my face!

I distinctly remember one really impressive Thump of a
heartbeat. I released and turned my head to my left, in the
direction I was launching. It went off about a foot or two
away from the wrist rocket. The blast and flash momentarily
blinded and deafened me.

I swore never again to ignore my gut instincts in such
situations, and Tom decided maybe I wasn't such a wuss after
all....

Maybe another time I'll tell about the next 4th, when Tom's
wife dropped a lit cig in the shopping bag with 2 bricks of
firecrackers, 2 gross of bottle rockets, a gross of M-80's
and two dozen 1" rockets. That was my last trip to the beach
with them....

Jon




A few year later and up the coast a bit in Half Moon Bay I was doing
something similar. We had got some firecrackers that made M-80's seem like
greenie stickum caps. They were about as big around as a silver dollar and
about 4 inches long.

We set it with a cigarette fuse down near the waterline and we had taped a
Bic lighter to the side of the thing. We retreated to the cliff side of the
beach and sat waiting.

The result was a mushroom cloud after a very big flash and boom.


--

__
Roger Shoaf

Important factors in selecting a mate:
1] Depth of gene pool
2] Position on the food chain.