Tornado and his mom made a surprise visit to us this
morning. The visit was more driven by an immediate need for a bathroom than
love of grandparents, but hey, I’ll take anything I can get.
While Arwen and Louise talked and tea’d, Tornado and I went
down to the workroom to see what kind of trouble we could get up to. The
initial intention was to bust out the saw and cut some big pieces of wood until
they became small pieces of wood. Somewhere between the first landing and the
basement it was decided that drilling would be more fun. I’m good with almost
anything, so I just went with the flow. I have a Yankee Drill that I have
written about before and it is the least scary drill you would ever want to
meet. I think that’s why it is Tornados favourite.
I set up the wood and the drill while Tornado went and got a
milk crate to stand on. For some reason, drilling just wasn’t as interesting
today as it has been in the past. This stuff happens when you are four and
faced with a workbench of interesting things. I remembered that I had a few
rolls of caps that I picked up at a second hand store for occasions such as
this. Who doesn’t like caps? They are tiny explosions that you can control which
come with sparks and smoke. Awesome!
The caps were a big hit of course as I knew they would be. I
don’t know anyone that doesn’t like them. I am sure there are some people in
the world who avoid caps, but they are most certainly in the minority and most
probably very miserable people.
I don’t have a cap gun anymore, but I can remember the joy
we had as kids fighting off Indians, rustlers and bank robbers. We spent a lot
of time shooting each other as well and we got pretty good at fake dying. What
a fantastic time to be a kid! Of course there would be times when your buddies
had to stay inside or go somewhere with their parents and your older brother
wanted nothing to do with you. That’s when I learned that a rock could replace
a gun. Yes, it wasn’t as elegant as the cap gun, but sometimes clumsy and
random is just what you need.
Springtime in southern Ontario
is a hectic mess of blooming flowers, mating birds, budding trees and the
greening of grass. There is also an abundance of old newspaper that has somehow
survived the snow, wind and cold of winter. What it can’t survive is little
boys and girls with magnifying lenses. It is too early to burn ants, but you
can burn your name onto those old newspapers. If you are lucky, you will find a
roll or two of caps in that light spring jacket that you haven’t worn all
winter. If you are really lucky, you will find a few rolls of caps in the
hand-me-down jacket you inherited from your brother. I didn’t know anything
about laser beams back then, but I did know that if you had a steady hand and a
roll of caps strung out between two stones, you could focus that hot beam of
light and explode the caps one at a time. Oh joy!!!!
Fifty five years have passed and I still remember the fun I
used to have with caps, thanks in part to Tornado. Well, spring is just around
the corner, I have a few boxes of caps and a magnifying glass for Tornado,
Hurricane and myself.
BOOM…BOOM…BOOM
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