If you have read any of my other stories, you may have stumbled on this fact about me. Growing up I loved fire. This rendition is no different. The scene is that of a Boy Scout summer camp. Camp Davy Crockett to be exact, I was a new wide eyed Tenderfoot Scout, who knew nothing, and was just trying to fit in. I spent my days swimming, shooting and screaming. Those by the way are the 3 S's a boy should grow up with, swimming, shooting and screaming, it helps with brain development. The morning dawned with a beautiful haze over the parade field, birds singing and four scouts giggling as they walked to the latrine with a can of aerosol bug spray and a roll of toilet paper.
Let me first say, what was about to happen to the beetle wrapped in this bug spray soaked toilet paper was akin to some medieval form of torture, akin to the age old practice of burning at the stake. Arriving at the latrine, the papery tomb was lit and without any thought dropped down the hole. The calm morning was shattered by a rather large boom and a massive fireball, quickly followed by four scouts running out of the latrine screaming.
The science as I later learned is this. Latrines are full of waste, that in turn degrade into even more foul things, creating a gas known to us as methane. Coincidently, methane is the same gas you can fart and light on fire. Well it is a gas that pools in the hole in the ground, and will vent if given time. If you throw a burning carcass of a beetle down the hole it combusts brilliantly.
I spent the next 2 days scrubbing scorch marks off the walls, ceiling and sinks. Apparently we were very lucky no one got hurt, and we didn’t start a forest fire, or worse, burn down the latrine! I remember feeling the Scoutmaster didn’t give any care for the poor beetle we had killed. It’s amazing the things adults worry about.
The morale of this story is... "Swimming, Shooting, Screaming" Live your life by those principles, and no harm can come by you.
Hope todays a good one,
austininva
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