More adventures of my youth
Posted 10-24-2014 at 01:42 AM by aliasfinn
My brother called me the other night and reminded me of something that happened over 40 years ago. I had almost forgotten about it and was surprised he remembered it since he was only about 6 years old when it occurred. We were living in New Mexico and were with two of our friends while walking down a nearby alley...
FIRE ANTS
We saw a couple of kids that had a bucket of gasoline and matches that were burning ants. These type of ants were big and built huge mounds and when you blew into the opening they would come running out of the hole by the hundreds. As they were setting a mound on fire they asked us to look for more ant mounds so we started walking away and there was this big " WOOOOSH " then a flash that lit up the whole alley followed by screams. When we turned around we saw one of the kids engulfed in flames rolling around on the ground and his friend helping him to put out the fire. After the fire was out,the kid got up from the ground and started cleaning up the mess in the alley before his mom got home while his friend ran to call an ambulance. He never did cry and missed the rest of the school year getting skin grafts. We moved shortly after that and I never saw him again.
THE BOAT
A few years later in Missouri,My younger brother and I were with a couple of friends and were exploring this abandoned warehouse that made concrete equipment. We found a small metal tub that was used to mix cement and decided to take it and use it for a boat. We took an 8ft pole and dragged the tub a half mile thru the weeds to where this creek was located. Two of us would ride in the tub using the pole to push the tub along the shallow water while the other two would walk along the banks of the creek and would switch places when it was their turn to get in the boat. After a few miles,the water began getting deeper and you could hear the roar of the Missouri river nearby. I was walking on the banks of the creek with my friend while my brother and his friend were in the boat and we started seeing these strange looking 3ft tee pees made out of grass and weeds all along the creeks banks up ahead. We weren't sure what kind of animals made those, beavers, river rats or what, but decided we didn't want to walk thru them plus it would have been to dangerous to take that little tub into the river so we called it quits. We left the tub in the creek and walked home.
THE OLD BREWERY
Around that same year was when the beer can collecting craze was popular and we had to get in on it. We would go to old dumps and antique shops to get rare beer cans and had quite a collection. A friend of ours told us of an old brewery that closed down in the 60s and that kids were getting old cans from inside there. It was about 20 miles away and we decided to hoof it there and explore.There were 7 of us all together including my younger brother and it didn't take too long to find it after asking a couple of geezers for directions. There were tall weeds around the entire building and the loading dock in the rear had no door so we all climbed inside. We encountered two kids coming out with boxes full of empty cans that were never filled and they told us where to find them. We went to the 2nd floor and saw hundreds of cans stacked in boxes and began grabbing them. We started exploring every inch of that building and found piles of grain and other ingredients used to make beer. We then went to a cellar that had a long tunnel and decided to follow it to see where it went. It was dark and damp in there and we found an old kerosene lantern and a square metal container with the words " SURVIVAL CRACKERS " written on it. We followed that tunnel for a few hundred yards until some of us started to get nervous and decided to go home with our cans. I think all together my brother and I had over 2 thousand cans in our collection before we sold them all. We never went back to that brewery.
FIRE ANTS
We saw a couple of kids that had a bucket of gasoline and matches that were burning ants. These type of ants were big and built huge mounds and when you blew into the opening they would come running out of the hole by the hundreds. As they were setting a mound on fire they asked us to look for more ant mounds so we started walking away and there was this big " WOOOOSH " then a flash that lit up the whole alley followed by screams. When we turned around we saw one of the kids engulfed in flames rolling around on the ground and his friend helping him to put out the fire. After the fire was out,the kid got up from the ground and started cleaning up the mess in the alley before his mom got home while his friend ran to call an ambulance. He never did cry and missed the rest of the school year getting skin grafts. We moved shortly after that and I never saw him again.
THE BOAT
A few years later in Missouri,My younger brother and I were with a couple of friends and were exploring this abandoned warehouse that made concrete equipment. We found a small metal tub that was used to mix cement and decided to take it and use it for a boat. We took an 8ft pole and dragged the tub a half mile thru the weeds to where this creek was located. Two of us would ride in the tub using the pole to push the tub along the shallow water while the other two would walk along the banks of the creek and would switch places when it was their turn to get in the boat. After a few miles,the water began getting deeper and you could hear the roar of the Missouri river nearby. I was walking on the banks of the creek with my friend while my brother and his friend were in the boat and we started seeing these strange looking 3ft tee pees made out of grass and weeds all along the creeks banks up ahead. We weren't sure what kind of animals made those, beavers, river rats or what, but decided we didn't want to walk thru them plus it would have been to dangerous to take that little tub into the river so we called it quits. We left the tub in the creek and walked home.
THE OLD BREWERY
Around that same year was when the beer can collecting craze was popular and we had to get in on it. We would go to old dumps and antique shops to get rare beer cans and had quite a collection. A friend of ours told us of an old brewery that closed down in the 60s and that kids were getting old cans from inside there. It was about 20 miles away and we decided to hoof it there and explore.There were 7 of us all together including my younger brother and it didn't take too long to find it after asking a couple of geezers for directions. There were tall weeds around the entire building and the loading dock in the rear had no door so we all climbed inside. We encountered two kids coming out with boxes full of empty cans that were never filled and they told us where to find them. We went to the 2nd floor and saw hundreds of cans stacked in boxes and began grabbing them. We started exploring every inch of that building and found piles of grain and other ingredients used to make beer. We then went to a cellar that had a long tunnel and decided to follow it to see where it went. It was dark and damp in there and we found an old kerosene lantern and a square metal container with the words " SURVIVAL CRACKERS " written on it. We followed that tunnel for a few hundred yards until some of us started to get nervous and decided to go home with our cans. I think all together my brother and I had over 2 thousand cans in our collection before we sold them all. We never went back to that brewery.
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