My interest in tennis ball cannons started to wane though when my friends and I, and a lot of other things, almost did get hurt. One day, we were at Alan’s house. We were experimenting with a new-fangled cannon. We had run out of lighter fluid so we siphoned gas out of his brother’s motorcycle. We put the gas in the same little container as the lighter fluid had been in. We were firing the cannon inside Alan’s garage so the ball would hit the ceiling and not go way up and possibly get lost. In addition to using dangerous gasoline, we had built one of our experimental models with four firing chambers. It was also made with masking tape. We were destined for eventual failure right from the start.
Alan struck the match and reached down to light the cannon. Suddenly the cannon ignited, but so did the cement floor of the garage. In our carelessness, we had spilled gas all over the ground. The masking tape caught fire, the tipped over can of gas caught fire --everything caught on fire! Alan tried stomping the fire out but he couldn’t see clearly and stepped on the can of gas. It squirted out more gas to feed the fire. The rest of us just stood their looking on in amazement. By now black smoke was pouring out of the garage as the flames reached up and licked at the rafters of the garage. The motorcycle was also in the garage with the still open gas tank.
I then realized that we needed to do something other that watch everything burn. I ran and got the hose. I turned on the water and ran with the hose gushing as I went. I almost got to the doorway of the garage, but the hose wasn’t long enough. I put my finger at the end of the hose forcing the water to squirt out far enough to get the fire. Some other kids went and got big plastic buckets and doused the flames. Soon the fire was out. So was my enthusiasm for tennis ball cannons. After that I kept a few tennis ball cannons in the corner of my room as mementos. But never again did I fire off a tennis ball cannon. And you know, I’m sure my mom did breath a sigh of relief, as well.
Coming Tomorrow: Love One Another
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