As a young man, I liked to experiment with new and different ways of getting into trouble. I didn’t know that’s what I was doing at the time. I thought that I was exploring science, and physics, elevating boredom, and contributing to my wealth of knowledge. When in reality, I was causing myself grief.
On a nice fall day in 1969, I was watching TV. The program was a western cereal. Painted and feathered American Indians were attacking a wooden fort. The Indians were shooting flaming arrows at the fort. It occurred to me that I didn’t know how to create a flaming arrow. I had the general idea, but what if I ever needed to set fire to a wooden fort? Would I be able to? I couldn’t answer that question! But I had a bow and some wooden arrows, and of coarse I had the time.
I gathered everything together, and went out into the pasture on the south side of the house. I had dug up a lighter and I figured that I needed an accelerate of some kind. I found a gas can with some diesel, in one of the barns. Now I would be able to defend the dairy from the invading Calvary.
I tried dipping the arrow in the diesel and lighting it, and letting it fly. It didn’t stay lit. I decided to try a wrapping a rag around the arrow and lighting it. When I shot the arrow, the rag slid down and caught the fetching on fire, the rag flopping caused the arrow to veer off course. When it hit the ground, the rag came off and bounced away from the arrow. I needed a new strategy. I raided my moms supply cabinet and got some gauze and medical tape. I figured that I needed some stability with the ability to stay lit. I wrapped the gauze around the arrow and taped it at both ends. I was careful with the diesel, wouldn’t want to dissolve the tape, I lit the arrow and let it fly. The arrow went straighter and further than any that I had previously shot. Which is unfortunate. The arrow stayed lit, and when it hit the roof of the house, the gauze slid down on impact and caught the very dry shake shingles of the house on fire.
I freaked out! Ran into the back yard and grabbed the garden hose. Luckily Dad was sitting on the back porch doing some paperwork and drinking coffee, hearing my panicked screams, he leapt into action, scrambling up onto the roof, via a decorative rock privacy wall that hid our central air conditioning unit. I tossed him the hose and he managed to extinguish the fire but not before it had destroyed about a 6 foot round area of shingles. Pop was pissed. But on the bright side of this incident, I learned how to construct a flaming arrow, (a talent that I’ve yet to utilize in a combat situation!) and I got a crash coarse in roofing with shake shingles. (Oh yea, I also learned that you can combine swear words regardless of their root meanings, a talent that I do utilize quite often!)
On a nice fall day in 1969, I was watching TV. The program was a western cereal. Painted and feathered American Indians were attacking a wooden fort. The Indians were shooting flaming arrows at the fort. It occurred to me that I didn’t know how to create a flaming arrow. I had the general idea, but what if I ever needed to set fire to a wooden fort? Would I be able to? I couldn’t answer that question! But I had a bow and some wooden arrows, and of coarse I had the time.
I gathered everything together, and went out into the pasture on the south side of the house. I had dug up a lighter and I figured that I needed an accelerate of some kind. I found a gas can with some diesel, in one of the barns. Now I would be able to defend the dairy from the invading Calvary.
I tried dipping the arrow in the diesel and lighting it, and letting it fly. It didn’t stay lit. I decided to try a wrapping a rag around the arrow and lighting it. When I shot the arrow, the rag slid down and caught the fetching on fire, the rag flopping caused the arrow to veer off course. When it hit the ground, the rag came off and bounced away from the arrow. I needed a new strategy. I raided my moms supply cabinet and got some gauze and medical tape. I figured that I needed some stability with the ability to stay lit. I wrapped the gauze around the arrow and taped it at both ends. I was careful with the diesel, wouldn’t want to dissolve the tape, I lit the arrow and let it fly. The arrow went straighter and further than any that I had previously shot. Which is unfortunate. The arrow stayed lit, and when it hit the roof of the house, the gauze slid down on impact and caught the very dry shake shingles of the house on fire.
I freaked out! Ran into the back yard and grabbed the garden hose. Luckily Dad was sitting on the back porch doing some paperwork and drinking coffee, hearing my panicked screams, he leapt into action, scrambling up onto the roof, via a decorative rock privacy wall that hid our central air conditioning unit. I tossed him the hose and he managed to extinguish the fire but not before it had destroyed about a 6 foot round area of shingles. Pop was pissed. But on the bright side of this incident, I learned how to construct a flaming arrow, (a talent that I’ve yet to utilize in a combat situation!) and I got a crash coarse in roofing with shake shingles. (Oh yea, I also learned that you can combine swear words regardless of their root meanings, a talent that I do utilize quite often!)
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