[Boatanchors] Boatanchor folks: See?

Tue Dec 18 17:02:51 EST 2012

Hi Ken,

A true tale -

My mother was born and grew up in a small town in northeastern South Dakota 
named Pierpont. Her brother, my uncle, absolutely hated fireworks. In SD 
class C fireworks were legal for ten days up, and including, July fourth.

My uncle farmed, but prior to that he had been on the Baltimore Orioles 
roster as a 'closing' or 'middle relief' left handed pitcher. His name? Some 
will remember Darryl Johnson.

I had a lot of talent and He got me a spring tryout with the Orioles AAA 
farm club, the Aberdeen Pheasants. They played in Aberdeen, SD for their 
home games. I was very excited about being given at least a chance. I was 
not a pitcher, rather a centerfielder.

Now my five years younger brother saw uncle Darryl walking toward his pickup 
truck, and us! Bob had seen somebody light and throw a firecracker on the 
ground near us. It never went off. Poor Robert had just picked it up when he 
saw his uncle come out of the drug store and walk toward him! He panicked 
and stuck the firecracker
in the right hand front pocket of his Wrangler jeans. We all got into the 
pickup truck and uncle Darryl started to drive down main street. All of a 
sudden ... KABOOM! That firecracker in Bob's pocket exploded! Uncle Daryll 
jumped a foot and probably had to change his Fruit Of The Looms briefs when 
he got back to the farm!

My little brother turned more pale than Casper The Friendly Ghost! More from 
the terror of Uncle Darryl getting angry than the firecracker exploding in 
his right front pocket!

Everybody got out of the truck and uncle Darryl looked at little Robert's 
jeans. There was a hole in the pocket that looked like someone had peeled a 
banana! There was a little puff of smoke coming from that hole every now and 
then! Uncle Darryl had Bob drop his jeans and looked at his leg. Hey! 
Pierpont only had a population of a thousand and whomever counted the 
population for the census must have counted chickens, hogs, horses and 
cattle along with people living in farms outside the city limits to get a 
population of a thousand!

It was bruised and already turning black and blue! Some skin abrasions too. 
Nothing serious, fortunately! That firecracker exploded only about one inch 
from little Robert's right testicle! My little brother almost never had a 
chance for a low voice or children one day down the road!

I will never ever forget that image of Bob standing there looking both 
sheepish and terror stricken with that banana peeling like hole in those 
jeans and smoke coming out around his ankle! Did that stop my little brother 
from playing with fireworks? Heck no! Well, at least not until his eighth 
grade Health teacher explained what a testicle was!

- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Kaplan" <krkaplan at cox.net>
To: "Boat Anchors List" <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 12:05 AM
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Boatanchor folks: See?

> Um Duane, don't forget the fuse if it's still left after that Black Cat!
>
> On 12/17/2012 10:54 PM, Duane Fischer, W8DBF wrote:
>> As I recall from my middle teenage years, a well positioned Black Cat
>> 1.5 inch firecracker worked very well when it came to the extraction of
>> hard to get at capacitors or resistors. Since the extracted item was in
>> a multitude of pieces, trying to test it for value, voltage handling
>> etc. was rather futile! Play it safe, replace all of them! Then if the
>> unit fails to work, you know it is due to a shorting power cord, as that
>> is all that remains that you have niether tested and/or replaced!
>
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