FIRE IN THE HOLE

How any of us survive childhood - especially young boys - is something of a miracle to me. In the summer between freshman and sophomore year of high school, I made a 12-minute 8mm movie, intended as a satirical take-off on the famously bad 50's movie ”Plan 9 from Outer Space.” I titled it simply “Attack of the Flying Saucer.” My friend from down the street, Michael Cannata, helped me make it.

The father of one of my other childhood friends, Harmon Cooper, had a cache of loose gunpowder stashed in his basement—who knows for what reason—and every now and then we would sneak some of it out for one or another fun purpose of our own. For my short film, I wanted to make it look like my character was being zapped by the aliens in their spaceship, so I lined the pocket of my jean jacket with aluminum foil and stuffed that full of gunpowder - and I do mean stuffed. Then, when we lit it, it created a huge eruption of flame out of the pocket. I’ve edited out that moment from the film for this seven-second clip on Youtube.

So, why didn’t that pocket full of gunpowder actually explode and kill me? I suspect it was because the gunpowder wasn’t compacted tightly enough. (Don’t try this at home, kids.)

Good times. Stupid times.

Ray Grasse is a writer, photographer, and astrologer who had a childhood and lived to tell about it. His websites are www.raygrasse.com and www.raygrassephotography.com.