Fourth to Forget

It was the Fourth of July and I had only been on station three days, when Dave Barber and I were invited to go shoot off some fireworks. We were packed into one car and it’s trunk was loaded with lady-fingers and salutes.

What started out as lighting off fireworks denigrated into an all-out free-for-all, as we were throwing lit firecrackers at each other. And it didn’t take long for someone to get hurt.

Dave was on his knees, bent forward, holding his face after being hit in the eye with an M-80 firecracker. The ensuing explosion blasted the lens out of his glasses.

We ended up rushing back to the base, and the hospital. Once there, Dave was hurried into the emergency room where the doctor examined his eye.

It took a while, but the doctor eventually declared Dave’s eye undamaged.  He told us Dave was luck he didn’t get his eye blown out of his head.

Then he added: “You ought to get your brains examined, too.”