When My Street Sounded Like Bagdad

Please keep in mind that the things we engaged in as kids, were in no way destructive or hurtful to any person or property--we were not raised that way and knew better.

If I could borrow your imagination, I would like to paint a picture in your mind on these true events that took place. Keep in mind that I grew up in a strict household. I had two older brothers and a younger sister. At 9:00 pm, all of the lights in the house was off and everybody went to bed. (This was a time when the parents knew where their kids were).We had no air conditioning. We had an attic fan. The window was raised about four inches and you would get air through the open window. The one that slept closest to the window got the most cool air in the summertime. Having said this, Let the story began.....

The neighborhood was very quiet and close knit. Everybody on the street knew who their neighbors were. Shortly before 9:00 PM, before the lock-down, my brother obtained a cigarette. We also had a dollar pack of firecrackers. Back then a dollar pack of firecrackers was about 3 foot long. We sneaked out of the house and went about two houses down the street and in the driveway at the edge of the road, we laid out the fireworks and connected it to the lit cigarette. We ran back to the house and slipped in unnoticed.

At 9:00PM we all went to bed. As we laid in bed, our hearts were beating fast with excitement. We snickered and quietly giggled in anticipation as Daddy would holler for us to go to sleep. We waited and waited and nothing. Did it go out? What was taking so long? In our minds it seemed like eternity. Slowly we settled down and gave up on it thinking that the fuse went out. We thought something went wrong.

All of a sudden the quiet peaceful neighbor lit up with fireworks. Off they went with such a bang, awaking us out of sleep. Was was going on?? The fireworks went on and on. I don't have a count of how many firecrackers was in the pack, but in our minds it went on for minutes. You would think that we were somewhere in Bagdad. All the front porch lights came on. It seemed to cause such a stir (much more than our expectation) that all the neighbors stepped out of their houses to see what in the world was was going on. All the dogs from all around the neighborhood was barking. I struggle to capture in words the commotion that was caused that night.

I remember being one of the ones that went outside to investigate. When I looked down the street, I could see a thick cloud of smoke hovering about 5 foot off the ground that shrouded the neighborhood. Needless to say the next day, there was much speculation going on as far as who the culprit was. I will say the we were never confronted with the issue or questioned. Could it be that it was because Mom and Dad knew where their kids were? To this day it is a open unsolved case. The sight of the lingering smoky haze in the neighborhood is forever embedded in my mind. I guess we will never know. (WINK)