(no subject)
A friend of mine used to make pipe bombs.
This was back in the day, 1982 or so.
The spraypaint was unlocked on a shelf, for anyone to buy.
Beachballs had no warnings written on them.
It wasn’t called “yoga,” it was Twister.
And we weren’t called “Terrorists,” just mudlarks.
And black powder and waterproof cannon fuse were standard items at Big 5, and pipe fittings were seemingly made for the job of knocking together an explosive.
And there were Taco Charleys as well as Taco Bells.
So Taco Charleys were equipped with trash can receptacles: imagine a steel drum slathered with gravel-encrusted concrete, topped with a two-and-a-half foot hemispherical lid of orange plastic, removable so the trash bag can be lifted out the top.
Solid affairs, these constructions; you’d not want to back into one with your car.
So, here we are late at night, at Taco Charley. (Back in the day, fast food restaurants close at eleven at night.)
Volvo.
Pipe bomb.
Bored teens, in the company of other bored teens, looking to each other to provide excitement.
So, I am handed the pipe bomb. My friend is driving the get-away Volvo, so I’m the demolition man.
Light fuse.
Push in spring-loaded flap on garbage can dome.
Drop bomb.
Run to car, jump in door, hit the accelerator.
I’m watching out the back window. Lighted parking lot. Garbage can receding. The only sound, the loud dice-rolling of the Volvo engine.
Five seconds can seem a long time, as one wonders whether it was a dud - which would pose a moral dilemma: I wouldn’t just walk away from unexploded ordinance: a prank could end up lethal if the device went off as someone was emptying or hauling trash.
Then it went off.
No sound that we could hear.
The masonry was entirely unmoved.
The dome, however, lifted, and from its rim emerged a gritty dark halo of pulverized refuse, as the dome lifted majestically, almost perfectly except for a slight wobble, straight up.
Almost slow motion.
One hundred feet, easily.
Have you ever seen footage of the old Apollo program’s lunar module taking off from the moon?
I hadn’t seen that spectacle since the seventies, and some decade later, that’s what came to mind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIKRkvCKri8
(Watch it with the sound off; that'll recreate the ambiance.)
It was eerily silent, spectacular.
It hung for a second, then started its descent.
I think we heard the thunderclap crash of the landing, but memory fails, here.
He was a fireworks and rockets man back in the day: he just didn’t know it.
This was back in the day, 1982 or so.
The spraypaint was unlocked on a shelf, for anyone to buy.
Beachballs had no warnings written on them.
It wasn’t called “yoga,” it was Twister.
And we weren’t called “Terrorists,” just mudlarks.
And black powder and waterproof cannon fuse were standard items at Big 5, and pipe fittings were seemingly made for the job of knocking together an explosive.
And there were Taco Charleys as well as Taco Bells.
So Taco Charleys were equipped with trash can receptacles: imagine a steel drum slathered with gravel-encrusted concrete, topped with a two-and-a-half foot hemispherical lid of orange plastic, removable so the trash bag can be lifted out the top.
Solid affairs, these constructions; you’d not want to back into one with your car.
So, here we are late at night, at Taco Charley. (Back in the day, fast food restaurants close at eleven at night.)
Volvo.
Pipe bomb.
Bored teens, in the company of other bored teens, looking to each other to provide excitement.
So, I am handed the pipe bomb. My friend is driving the get-away Volvo, so I’m the demolition man.
Light fuse.
Push in spring-loaded flap on garbage can dome.
Drop bomb.
Run to car, jump in door, hit the accelerator.
I’m watching out the back window. Lighted parking lot. Garbage can receding. The only sound, the loud dice-rolling of the Volvo engine.
Five seconds can seem a long time, as one wonders whether it was a dud - which would pose a moral dilemma: I wouldn’t just walk away from unexploded ordinance: a prank could end up lethal if the device went off as someone was emptying or hauling trash.
Then it went off.
No sound that we could hear.
The masonry was entirely unmoved.
The dome, however, lifted, and from its rim emerged a gritty dark halo of pulverized refuse, as the dome lifted majestically, almost perfectly except for a slight wobble, straight up.
Almost slow motion.
One hundred feet, easily.
Have you ever seen footage of the old Apollo program’s lunar module taking off from the moon?
I hadn’t seen that spectacle since the seventies, and some decade later, that’s what came to mind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIKRkvCKri8
(Watch it with the sound off; that'll recreate the ambiance.)
It was eerily silent, spectacular.
It hung for a second, then started its descent.
I think we heard the thunderclap crash of the landing, but memory fails, here.
He was a fireworks and rockets man back in the day: he just didn’t know it.