When I was in the seventh grade we had a neighbor, one farm over, whose kid and I were buddies for a summer. He'd just got his permit and was a couple of years older, and had an old Willys Jeep that we knocked around in. His Dad was in the Nat Guard and we absconded with a few boxes, yes boxes, of 30.06 blanks. They had (no idea if they still do) little red caps in the end of them. You could prize the end off and a Black Cat firecracker fit perfectly in the end. They'd blow up like friggin dynamite and send brass shrapnel everywhere. We blew up a lot of shit that summer. Talk about a couple of morons. My buddy's Dad also got us a box, yes a box, of real genuine M80 firecrackers with the waterproof fuses. We bombed every pond in the vicinity. Like I said, nobody's got the market cornered on dumbassery. Me and this same guy used to go skating on ponds in the winter. See what I mean?

BKB