My Mom told me not to play with Dynamite - but WE did!

Well I have put this one off too long but I had to make sure the statute of  limitations was up and that what you did when you were under age could not come back to haunt you.  Eddy Harris ( the picture above) and me grew up living one mile apart and he was my closest neighbor and cousin.  In fact if you came to my house on the road you had to drive by Eddy's house to get to mine.

This is Eddy's mom who still lives at her house and she is now in her 90's.  I just got to visit with her a couple of weeks ago with my Mom and she was delightful as ever but suffering from some small stokes.  Eddy's dad, Gordon, passed away when he was about 13 years old.  He was a great guy and very well liked.  My dad loved Gordon as they were close friends.

In fact let's chase a rabbit.  That means let's tell a side story.  I hate explaining myself all the time but some folks just are uneducated.  I know I have a lot of culture as I went to AgriCULTURE school.

Dad told me many times about Gordon having a prized dog that he really loved.  Another issue going on at the time was there was some dog that was chasing cattle and where I come from that is a capital offense.  Anyway, there was a dog down at our house (remember that our closest neighbor was one mile away) and Dad assumed that was the dog that had been chasing cows and in fact we had one that was killed.  Well Dad went and got his gun and shot that dog.  He said he wounded it pretty bad and it ran away.   A couple of days later Gordon was down at the house and was telling Dad how somebody had shot his dog.  Dad immediately knew that must have been Gordon's dog so he said, "Who would do something like that?".  Dad felt really bad but just could  not tell his good friend he shot his dog.

I suspect you are still wondering about the dynamite.  HOLD ON, I have another Eddy story or two.  Heck I will tell those another time.  So here goes.

In those days most people kept, maybe not most, dynamite so they could blow holes for fence posts in rocky areas.  Generally it was kept in an old freezer in the barn and normally it was locked.  But we knew where the key was kept.  Anyway, (twice in one story) Eddy and I enjoyed playing with dynamite on occasion.  The challenge with dynamite is when you play with it people can here it miles away.  Some people say it was dangerous but Eddy and I did not share that fear with our families and friends.  Also we knew that if you put on a blasting cap and a fuse you could calculate how much time you had to get away before it went BOOM.  In fact for every foot of fuse we knew we had one minute.  Also we knew that if you took one stick of dynamite and cut it in half you could get two BOOMs out of each stick.  We were pretty good at math.

We were out looking for something to do and decided that we should go fishing.  We were about 12 years or maybe 14 at the oldest.  We did not have the patience so we took our 22 caliber rifles and a 22 pistol and one half stick of dynamite.  We had heard that fish really enjoyed dynamite.  Anyway we shot a lot of shells then we decided it was time to catch some fish.  We lit that stick of dynamite and threw it into the pond where it sank to the bottom.  At that point we were not sure if it would just go out or what would happen.  But we saw some smoke coming out of the water and then after about one minute the water rose about a foot in a 20 foot circle.  Shortly the water exploded like someone had dropped a giant rock into the water and water went sky rocketing into the air then there was a very loud BOOM.

When we shared this story with folks over the years we would always be asked, "how many fish did you catch?".  Our answer was "ALL OF THEM".  We just scooped them up and when we got home everyone was surprised at how well we had done fishing.  Luckily no one suspected how we caught them other than when folks asked where we caught them we always answered, "In the mouth".

I am sad to say that we lost Eddy in a construction accident about 13 years ago.  For years Eddy was my best friend and we shared a lot of stories, not that we heard but that WE MADE.  If you haven't read my blog you will find a story about the eggs we got into in one of the earlier stories.  There are a lot more and in memory of my friend and cousin I will enjoy sharing them with you.

What did I learn from this:

   Don't play with dynamite
   Remember the great things in life and forget about the bad, it never helps you in the end to be bitter
   Great friends endure through hard times like losing your dad or unfulfilled expectations

Somehow I would like to just sit here and remember Eddy Harris, a Great Friend.  I love you Eddy and I miss you.  

Thanks for spending time with me.
gary

gary@thepioneerman.comhttp://thepioneerman.blogspot.com