You’d think we would have known better. I’m not sure how old we were, but we were a couple of bright, but curious, boys. We really should have seen, er, heard what was coming.
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My best friend, Chris Farrar, and I must have been in eighth grade, maybe ninth, when we found the 12-gauge shotgun shell. Maybe it was in the gutter along a street on our way home from Churchill Junior High — I don’t recall. But, unlike the spent shell I found on my run two weeks ago, this one was live ammo.
Lacking a shotgun to put the round to proper misuse, we decided to dismantle the shell to see just how it was made. We knew the basics, though I’m not sure if we’d already been through the hunter safety course taught by Vern Coates, one of our venerable Boy Scout leaders. But we wanted to see all the elements — powder, shot, wad, primer.
In the back room of my dad’s garage we used a sharp knife to slice through the plastic casing near the brass base of the shell. We dumped the shot — I don’t recall what size it was — extracted the wad and dumped the powder. I can’t imagine we didn’t burn the powder, but I have no recollection of doing so. Maybe we were chicken, fearful it would flash or flare and burn us or something. I don’t recall. But the primer seemed innocent enough…
Somehow we extracted the primer from the base of the shell and clamped it firmly in a pair of vice grips. One of us then held the vice grips and the other grabbed a punch and a hammer. Well, we had no idea that tiny primer would be so loud. I’m sure it was compounded by the confined space, and poor Chris managed to take the brunt in his left ear. I’m pretty sure his hearing was permanently, though not seriously, damaged.
Let that be a lesson to you, kids. Wear hearing protection when you do stupid stuff.
Today’s Stats (April 24, 2014)
Temp: 52 degrees F
Distance: 4.01 miles
Weekly Total: 8.92 miles
Treasure: 2 pennies, 1976 and 1981, both heads up (double good luck?)
iPhone Playlist (Matchbox Twenty Mix)
Black & White People
Angry
If You’re Gone
Someday
Snowblind
Bright Lights
Bent
Disease
Problem Girl
Streetcorner Symphony
Today’s Stats (April 22, 2014)
Temp: 55 degrees F
Distance: 4.82 miles
Weekly Total: 4.82 miles
Treasure: Nada. Didn’t look.
iPod Playlist (Shuffle)
Come Sail Away - Styx
Bed of Lies - Matchbox Twenty
Everybody Plays the Fool - The Main Ingredient
Bad Woman Blues - Trampled Under Foot
You Make Me Feel Like Dancing - Leo Sayer
I Was In The House When The House Burned Down - Warren Zevon
Bron-Yr-Aur - Led Zeppelin
Too Many Tears - The Call
When I Get Home - The Beatles
Hung Up On You - Cake
Glad Tidings - Van Morrison
Radio - Matchbox Twenty
More Than A Feeling - Boston
Something 'Bout A Woman - Lady Antebellum
American Honey - Lady Antebellum
Today's Stats (April 9, 2014)
Temp: 39 degrees F (41 at end)
Distance: 4.2 miles
Weekly Total: 8.9 miles
Treasure: Nada. Didn’t look.
iPod Playlist (Shuffle):
Bigger Than My Body - John Mayer
Drop Dead Legs - Van Halen
The Bird & The Worm - Owl City
Brick (Live) - Ben Folds
Catch My Disease - Ben Lee
Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry
Best of Times - Styx
Dig A Pony - The Beatles
She’s A Beauty - The Tubes
I Should Have Known Better - The Beatles
I’m Only Sleeping - The Beatles
Today's Stats (April 7, 2014)
Temp: 46 degrees F (55 at end)
Distance: 4.7 miles
Weekly Total: 4.7 miles
Treasure: 51 cans; 1 spent 12-gauge shotgun shell
iPod Playlist (Yourself Or Someone Like You):
Real World
Long Day
3 AM
Push
Girl Like That
Back 2 Good
Damn
Argue
Busted
Shame
Hang
(Mad Season)
Angry
Black and White People
Crutch
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