Explosives training was de rigueur for children in the ’60s – The Herald-News

In spring, they say, a young mans fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.

Summer, however, is another story, especially for a kid growing up in the 60s. Especially around the Fourth of July.

Because at that time the efforts of me and my juvenile cohorts were directed towards the acquisition and detonation of firecrackers (what used to be labeled Class C fireworks) when we could get them, or crummy dime-store novelties when we couldnt.

Now Class C fireworks like polygamy, a Republican-controlled legislature and (until recently) recreational marijuana have always been illegal in Illinois. Enterprising downstate 10-year-olds like myself had to make do with the sad trinity of S fireworks novelties smoke bombs, sparklers and that most disappointing of all novelties, snakes.

That is, unless you had a connection. My connection was the uncle of a couple of my friends, who saw nothing wrong with supplying his younger kin with the occasional packet of Black Cats and bottle rockets on the down low.

Flashlight firecrackers like Black Cats, Thunder Bombs and Lady Fingers packs came anywhere from several hundred to 16 to a pack, all linked in two rows by a common fuse. Our black market connection limited us to maybe a couple 16-packs at a time, which we judiciously spent like misers in a recession.

Early on we learned how to unthread the main fuse, freeing up the individual firecrackers for solitary use. Care had to be taken lest you pull a fuse from an individual firecracker. Once removed, they were hard to put back in, and even when you could, half the time they still wouldnt work.

Even then, a small percentage of the firecrackers might not work. Youd take a firecracker, maybe stick it in a newly assembled plastic airplane model, or shove it an ant nest or prepare to throw it behind your little brother, light it and nothing happens. A dud.

This is a problem for your typical 10-year-old. Should he pick it up and chance it going off in his hand? That would be bad, because Mom would find out. But then again, you cant just leave it lying there. Because, for Gods sake, you dont want to waste it.

The remedy: step on it. And then pick it up.

Igniting duds presented another challenge. Sometimes they had a very short piece of fuse left, so short that it would probably go off before you could throw it, and then youre stuck with Mom again.

Sometimes you could expose a more fuse by pulling it out a little, but in all likelihood that still wouldnt work, and then youd be left with a fuseless, twice-stepped-on dud.

Sometimes the duds had no fuses left. You could maybe use a piece of the leftover main fuse if you hadnt already lit it and thrown it at your buddy. But even if you saved a piece, it was always too flimsy to shove back in.

Quite a quandary. The solution, of course, was taping it to another firecracker and attempting to set it off that way. Either that, or dousing with gasoline or lighter fluid which were apparently pretty easy for children to acquire back then and then lighting it.

Or you could take the gutless approach: break the dud in half and turn it into a flare.

The biggest challenge actually turned out to be the ignition source. Disposable lighters didnt exist back then, nor did long barbecue-style lighters. And getting caught with the old mans Ronson was probably an imprisonable offense.

No, we were stuck with paper matches, which could burn your fingers just as easy as sparking fuse. They were easy enough to get your hands on back then, when there was a law in America requiring adults to smoke.

Still, if you ever ran out of matches before you ran out of firecrackers, you were in big trouble.

Listening to the continuous detonation of quartersticks (or are those gunshots?) around Joliet this time of year always brings back fond memories, though I havent set off fireworks on my own now for many years.

Mostly because the noise terrifies the dog.

Plus, what would I do if one turned out to be a dud?

Bill Wimbiscus is a former editor and reporter at The Herald-News.

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Explosives training was de rigueur for children in the '60s - The Herald-News