Me & a Roman Candle

 

We lived on Manget Street. In the old ex-chicken coop I had hidden a Roman Candle. I was waiting to a day everybody was gone to shoot it. My father was the Chief of the Marietta Police and it was against the law to shoot fireworks in Georgia. I think he would have taken a dim view.
When the day came that I was along I went out in the yard with Roman Candle I was hiding and lit it. It just smoked, fizzled and quit. I went over to it to see if I could light it again.

I picked it up on the end the same time the Candle got it second wind and shot out a fierce powerful flame right into the palm of my hand.

I thought I would die in pain.

I was still more worried about being caught shooting fireworks than the pain itself. The evidence was the palm of my hand; If my Daddy noticed my hand and me writing in pain I would have been caught "red handed". Yuk yuk... get it?
The only thing I knew to do was go to the Strand Theater's matinee show, buy a large cup of ice, put water in it, then keep my hand in it the icy cup.

I sat through the movie one and half times, crying part of the time in pain. The girl behind the concession counter felt sorry for me and told me she heard Coke would help it, so she used my cup and put more ice and then Coco Cola.

I think it worked. The pain lessened and I kept my blistered hand out of my parents view for a couple of days

Herrings, 5 Generations

 Anna's kin.

Uncle Roy Jerked My Pants Off

 

This is my uncle Roy Petty, my mother’s brother. The other picture is a wallet he made for me while in the Army. Look closely and you can see my name on it. He was on Normandy Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Because of that his actions are described  in THE LONGEST DAY and RUDDERS' RANGERS. And during D Day ceremonies of yesteryear he was asked annually to stand up in the audience of the Ed Sullivan Show.

When Roy visited us after the War he and I got along great. He kidded me a lot. Once in front of our house he was trying to talk to his siblings and I was aggravating him for laughs. Then suddenly grabbed me and yanked off my shorts and threw them on top or the house. I was butt naked. I ran into the house embarrassed. That ended the aggravation for that day.

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