33 - Carnival, & Explosives.
It went with a bang.
Then we
got into making small explosions largely out of sodium-chlorate
weed-killer. What we were doing then
would be rated as being tantamount to terrorist activity in this day and
age. Amongst our ‘gang’ was one
genious, come nutter, who we shall call Mike; one who dabbled in chemistry, and
decided that he could extract glycerine from cough sweets. I was visiting our neighbouring billet in
which he resided, when he was busy mixing up a chemical concoction of some sort
contained in the lid of a tin of boot polish tin. Suddenly there was a vivid orange flash, and a mighty bang; the
result being that he had to be whisked off to the emergency medical
centre. Fortunately at the time of the
explosion I was at the other end of that billet. Mike was later seen with a heavily bandaged forearm, and no
eyebrows.
Any
way, someone had the bright idea to place an army type drinks-bottle packed
full of explosives, which was then surrounded with concrete, in a small leather
suitcase. From the mouth of the bottle
a copper capillary pipe was run to the outside of the case near the handle; a
Jetex fuse was inserted into this tube.
Jetex Fuel was used in model jet-engines of the time. So we had created this secret espionage
bomb, so what should we do with it?
Between us we came up with the idea of dropping the bomb into the very
muddy River Parrett from the bridge in the centre of town, just to add to the
festival on fireworks night; with the idea that the ‘bomb’s explosion would
through up a mountain of soft mud to cover anybody who happened to be on the
bridge . On the relative dark evening
five of us were travelling in a Morris 12 the seven miles to Bridgwater. I had the case on my lap, Pine who was
sitting next to me, stuck his lighter, and applied it to the fuse of the
case. There were shouts, and probably
screams, and the car skidded to a halt have onto the grass berm; the doors flew
open and the inmates dived out of the car in a frantic bid to put as much
distance between them and the ‘bomb’.
I made a slightly exit as I was sat in the middle of the three back
seats to and I had to get the case off my lap and out of my way before I could
make my escape. After waiting for some
while, and hearing no bang, we decided that the fuse had not been ignited. We got back in the car, and Pine was told in
no uncertain terms, not to be so stupid again, and we continued on our journey.
We found
our way to the bridge over the River Parett, I held the case on the bridge
parapet whilst Pine lit the fuse, then I dropped the case into the river. It was dark, and no one would have noticed
what we had done, and there was plenty of festive activity to obscure the
noise.
We moved
a way from the centre of the bridge, and waited, and we waited; nothing
happened. In the end we decided that
the fuse had been extinguished under water and, disappointed. We drifted away. We missed seeing the delayed explosion, but
we heard the bang all right. So it had
worked after all.
There
were various amusement stalls, boxing rings, etc. There was this caravan, which attracted us lads with its
sign: “See the naked sleeping
princess”. Wow! I, for one, had never seen a naked lady
before. We paid our money and mounted
some steps and entered the caravan. I
can remember the dim pink lighting and various curtains, and we came upon this
young woman in a glass ‘coffin’, she was laying quietly on her back, naked
except for a whisp of tulle discreetly draped across her groin. Horrified I saw Pine lift the lid, and he
lent over and spoke to the girl¨ “Oi girl! D’you wanna fag?”
“I’m not
allowed to speak to anybody”, she whispered: “You’ll get me the sack”.
After a
last lingering look we left her, slightly reluctantly, in peace.
