Winter Is My Middle Name

Chapter 7

The Fourth of July meant it was time to get out the carbide and find a can with a tight fitting lid. Every kid in the neighborhood was down at the dump looking for paint cans or any other type of can with a lid. There would also be a run on carbide at the local hardware store. The sales person never questioned why we were buying it or what it was being used for. Not like today, when you have to be 18 and show your ID to buy a can of spray paint. We were sure lucky back then, but we didn't know it. The world has changed a lot since then.

The year before I went all out and bought a two and half pound can of carbide, enough to last my entire childhood. I discovered that the can it came in made the best carbide-can you could find. The lid was very tight fitting and sealed in all the gasses and didn't let any escape. I would put several pieces of carbide in the can, then sprinkle some water from the pop bottle I had filled with water, replace the lid and hold my finger over the hole I had made in the bottom of the can, where the match would ignite the gas and a bright blue flame would shoot out of the hole and then blow the lid off with a BIG BOOM! That can was the envy of every kid in the neighborhood.

You could hear "boom, boom" coming from every section of the neighborhood. This would start around July first and continue until a few days after the fourth. As I look back, I am amazed that no one ever called the police. A few years later I traded that carbide can for a double bladed axe that I intended to take to Canada so I could build my log cabin. I still have the axe, but I am sure the can is now at the bottom of the dump rusting away.

After the Fourth of July, Tubby went on vacation to Atlantic City. His family went there every year. He would come back and tell me tales of how the under current almost pulled him out to sea, or a big wave came crashing down on him and he almost drowned. This made me glad that we never went to the ocean for a vacation.

I was riding my bike around the playground and I saw Joe come racing down the hill and standing on the seat of his bicycle!

"Joe! You're crazy, you know that," I hollered to him.

"Relax, Dandy, I know what I am doing. I have perfect balance," he told me.

"Yeah, until you fall and break a leg or something."

"Where is everybody?"

"Tubby is on vacation and Andy probably went swimming as usual. I don't know where everyone else has gone. It looks like it's just you and me. By the way, where have you been? I haven't seen you all summer."

"My old lady said she thought it would be good for me to go stay with my brother in Chicago for a while. So I have been out there until last night. I am glad to be back here. I could never live in the city, there is nothing to do there. I guess I missed all the fireworks over the Fourth?"

"Yeah, you did. It seemed as though there were more carbide cans this year than other years."

"My brother had M-80s and Cherry Bombs. They are legal out there, at least that is what he told me."

"The only thing legal here are sparklers and black magic snakes. Boring!"

"Yeah, it's a wonder they let us have carbide cans," said Joe sarcastically. "Let's go down to the Guinea Field and see what's going on there."

"Might as well, it's boring here. But lets try to stay out of trouble, and don't stand on your seat, ok?"

"Dandy, you're funny."

We got to the Guinea Field and it was empty - not a soul in sight. Usually someone was there hitting a ball or passing a football, but it was quiet. We rode over to the creek where it was shady and as we looked down the water it was all red!