The armageddon man and two sons..

I

My brother Mark, who is five years younger than I, and I both had a very bad habit. It just happened that my new father, who just adopted me, had an avid junkie habit of loading ammo in his little man cave, which we called the gun room. He had the required tools like a swage device., It's a long-handled lever that was a mystery as to how it worked. I eventually learned you screw in different dies to do different things. Shells that were ejected when you were shooting at the gun range had to be resized to their original specs. The shells got distorted when the gun powder exploded to push the bullet out. It's a long story.. Anyway, he had at least 500 rounds ready for a Colt .45, which was a pistol used in World War II. Also, he loaded for deer hunting, maybe 200 rounds. Additionally, 300 rounds for 3006. The reason my brother and I developed a bad habit was that our new Dad had this habit, as well as a few other habits that we picked up. My new Dad was a big Bang junkie. I think they have a special dimension for men who like big bangs.

One fine summer day, hot, we went to the desert, where there was a huge gouged canyon deep in the basalt rock, which is most of eastern Washington State. Perfect for my junkie boom fanatic Dad's playground. We had all our guns: 30’06 rifles, right from World War II, a .45 pistol, at least two deer rifles, and a .22 rifle. Well, we blasted away for an hour, then, tired of that, my father pulled out a huge gallon barrel of black powder and pistol powder. He pulled out one of those electrical conduits with the end cut off, approximately 6 inches wide and 10 feet long. He pushed some dirt clouds down, pushed by a long stick, to the middle of the pipe, then the black powder. poured in. He then poured a cup of pistol powder into the tube for a fuse.(It gives you two or three minutes to find cover.  He filled the other side with dirt clouds and rock. So he laid down the pipe on top of our Volkswagen and lit the slow-burning pistol powder, and we ran. The explosion was spectacular! One end fired the rocks into the canyon wall, and the rocks flew back toward our car, barely missing it. Then the pipe blew back off the car and hit so many feet the other way. We were all in awe of what my Dad had done, but mostly in shock, wondering why we hadn't died. And my brother Mark and I learned a bad habit about how to make a big bang and were known for blowing up sister's sand box!

And the poor Volkswagen, Dad never talked to my Mom about how this peculiar big scratch got on the top of the car. This story cannot be verified. Secretly, I think he wanted a better car and was trying to accidentally blow it up My brother and i became the noise makers of the street. All very innocent, but noisey. And it didn't extend into Adult hood, thank goodness!

Ric