You need to keep well back (further than you think)
Aug 29, 2016I remember when I was little, me and all the other kids in the road absolutely LOVED fireworks! They didn’t sell them all the year round in England like they do in some countries, so when they came on sale just before bonfire night on November 5th ("Remember, remember the fifth of November, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot" .. etc!) it was a VERY exciting time.
I was 10 years old, Martin across the road was a year older than me, and he knew all the different fireworks that you could buy by name .. Screachers, Airbombs, Catherine Wheels, Jumpin Jacks (they got banned a few years later), Airbomb Repeaters .. and the infamous LANDMINE!
Of course we couldn’t actually buy fireworks ourselves because you had to be 16! So we would scavenge at the end of organised firework displays. We’d collect all the old fireworks and see if we could find any that hadn’t gone off.
One day, we met early in the morning at the Cricket Club, the day after a big firework show the night before. The fire was still smouldering and there were firework carcasses everywhere .. rich pickings!!
‘Have you ever heard a Landmine?’ Martin asked me with an air of superiority.
‘Yeah!’ I immediately lied.
‘They are so loud, the ground shakes!’ he said. ‘You have to be 100 feet back when it goes off because it leaves a crater in the ground.’
‘I know!’ I said trying not to sound impressed, but all I could think to myself was WOW .. I have GOT to get a Landmine!
‘It’s illegal to let them off without informing the Police first.’ Martin said, and someone else who I didn’t really know nodded in agreement. He seemed to know all about Landmines too.
I never did get to see or hear a Landmine but I always wanted to.
Years later, when I was 27 years old, I got invited to a firework party with a lot of people that I didn’t really know that well. I thought I’d stop and get some fireworks on the way.
As I perused the boxes and boxes of fireworks in the locked glass counters in the shop I suddenly saw something that made me giddy with excitement .. a Landmine!
Oh my goodness, this was so exciting. The size of the firework did not disappoint .. it was indeed HUGE! It was about $50 but I could not leave the shop without it.
When I got to the party, I made idle chit chat with various people throughout dinner, but I was eagerly awaiting the fireworks afterwards.
Finally, the time came to go out into the garden and light the fireworks. I wanted to save my Landmine for a bit but after about 5 minutes I couldn’t stand it any longer and I walked up to the guy lighting the fireworks and very proudly presented my Landmine!
I was worried that we were all not going to be able to get back the required 100 feet. Then I saw where he was planning to light the firework – in a tiny little trough of sand in an old barbeque!
‘I think that needs to be buried in the ground.’ I said.
‘Oh it will be fine!’ he said nonchalantly with no respect for what he held in his hands.
I had visions of bits of splintered tin barbeque flying through the air at high velocity, and so retreated well back. In fact so far back, I was by the house, a good 10 yards behind everyone else watching the fireworks.
As he reached out to light it, I didn’t know whether I was proud of what was about to happen or terrified for those who were way too close. But in a second it was too late.
The fuse quickly lit and the firework ignited .. ignited into a beautiful display of red and gold and green and blue lights!
WHAT??! Where was the epic explosion? Where was the crater in the floor? How come the police didn’t come to arrest us for letting off a deadly Landmine without first telling them?
I was 10 years old, Martin across the road was a year older than me, and he knew all the different fireworks that you could buy by name .. Screachers, Airbombs, Catherine Wheels, Jumpin Jacks (they got banned a few years later), Airbomb Repeaters .. and the infamous LANDMINE!
Of course we couldn’t actually buy fireworks ourselves because you had to be 16! So we would scavenge at the end of organised firework displays. We’d collect all the old fireworks and see if we could find any that hadn’t gone off.
One day, we met early in the morning at the Cricket Club, the day after a big firework show the night before. The fire was still smouldering and there were firework carcasses everywhere .. rich pickings!!
‘Have you ever heard a Landmine?’ Martin asked me with an air of superiority.
‘Yeah!’ I immediately lied.
‘They are so loud, the ground shakes!’ he said. ‘You have to be 100 feet back when it goes off because it leaves a crater in the ground.’
‘I know!’ I said trying not to sound impressed, but all I could think to myself was WOW .. I have GOT to get a Landmine!
‘It’s illegal to let them off without informing the Police first.’ Martin said, and someone else who I didn’t really know nodded in agreement. He seemed to know all about Landmines too.
I never did get to see or hear a Landmine but I always wanted to.
Years later, when I was 27 years old, I got invited to a firework party with a lot of people that I didn’t really know that well. I thought I’d stop and get some fireworks on the way.
As I perused the boxes and boxes of fireworks in the locked glass counters in the shop I suddenly saw something that made me giddy with excitement .. a Landmine!
Oh my goodness, this was so exciting. The size of the firework did not disappoint .. it was indeed HUGE! It was about $50 but I could not leave the shop without it.
When I got to the party, I made idle chit chat with various people throughout dinner, but I was eagerly awaiting the fireworks afterwards.
Finally, the time came to go out into the garden and light the fireworks. I wanted to save my Landmine for a bit but after about 5 minutes I couldn’t stand it any longer and I walked up to the guy lighting the fireworks and very proudly presented my Landmine!
I was worried that we were all not going to be able to get back the required 100 feet. Then I saw where he was planning to light the firework – in a tiny little trough of sand in an old barbeque!
‘I think that needs to be buried in the ground.’ I said.
‘Oh it will be fine!’ he said nonchalantly with no respect for what he held in his hands.
I had visions of bits of splintered tin barbeque flying through the air at high velocity, and so retreated well back. In fact so far back, I was by the house, a good 10 yards behind everyone else watching the fireworks.
As he reached out to light it, I didn’t know whether I was proud of what was about to happen or terrified for those who were way too close. But in a second it was too late.
The fuse quickly lit and the firework ignited .. ignited into a beautiful display of red and gold and green and blue lights!
WHAT??! Where was the epic explosion? Where was the crater in the floor? How come the police didn’t come to arrest us for letting off a deadly Landmine without first telling them?
I could not make sense of it. At the end I went and picked up the firework shell to see why it hadn’t exploded. I read the instructions on the side. They described a beautiful array of colours that the firework produced for minutes on end. Where did it explain about the explosion I thought?
And then very, very slowly I realised that I wasn’t the only one who’d lied about seeing a Landmine. It was a myth! For years, young boys and peered at the large, expensive firework that no one could afford and made up stories about how loud and dangerous they were. But they don’t explode, they produce pretty lights! What an anti-climax!
It’s funny isn’t it how we can hear things when we are young and we accept them without any critical thought or mental examination of any kind whatsoever? We never question them again, we just accept that they are true and behave accordingly.
Martin didn’t mean any harm, he probably believed it too because someone told him! But it’s not just our friends that tell us things that are nonsense that we never question is it? We accept information from every different direction all our lives. And because other people believe it too, we think we’re safe.
But 100% of people can be wrong can’t they? The world was flat for a long time!
It’s a fact that we all believe things we’ve picked up over the years that we unquestioningly think are true. Is it possible that any of those things are holding you back from achieving the good that you desire?
Until next time ..
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