OK, know I can be a bit of a windbag at times, always posting here (and stufz). I like to post whimsical things, nothing too dark or sinister....we get enough of that in real life. I guess Im saying Im NOT in real life? Hmmm. So At 9 years old, I had a girlfriend .. but more of a running buddy. I wish I could remember her name. She was cute, but more than that - she was a best buddy then. For those that dont recall, Chandler Blvd. had a train track running down its center. I lived on Corteen Place, just north of Chandler. The L.A. river system had one of its concrete channels cutting under Chandler. With the blvd. and the RR right of way, that channel tunnel was easily 150 long and its width was about 4 to 6. Under Chandler, the concrete walls were covered with a tar-like substance...laid pretty thick. Dont know why, but some sort of water seal I imagine. Ummm, you could actually light that stuff. And we did. I remember saying to her Hope we dont blow up with this tunnel as she lit the match. I was the provider of the matches. Well, it didnt blow .... it didnt even fire up ... just a little small patch of blue flame slowly crawling up the wall ... it was so cool looking, a real soft blue. Then, as rapidly as you could say OH SH--T that harmless blue flamed turned yellow and the smoke from the tar started coming on quickly. Apparently the breeze blowing through there hastened the ignition. As responsible kids back then, we did the proper thing - WE RAN LIKE HELL out of there and split up and went different ways (a plan I saw on a movie once). We agreed to meet atop the roof of a newly erected but not opened apt. bldg in a half hour. I had run to the Alpha Beta on Whitsett, a good two blocks away and north. Dont know where she went. Within ten or fifteen minutes I heard what sounded like more than one siren ... then more ... then from different directions. I started getting REAL scared and further distanced myself from the scene. About twenty minutes later, I made my way back to the apartment bldg and met with her and we used our secret ladder to the rooftop. As soon as we opened the hatch we could see a lot of thick black smoke and all you could hear from us was a collective UH-OH. Once on the rooftop, we heard a whirleybird .... UH-OH. LOL, we set Chandler Blvd ablaze. Smoke was billowing out of the two entrances like a blast furnace, or so it seemed. The black smoke was thick and acrid and it was all show, but there was enough to fill the sky up high. There were fire folk everywhere and we feared our position might be compromised so we boogied once again. Later that night, mom and dad were watching the news ... and there it was with all its thick, acrid smoke billowing out. The report went on to say that there was little damage as the tar never got hot enough to fully burn but smoked like hell. An investigation will be held as it appeared to be something called arson and the perpetrators would be brought to justice. The next few days were a bit uncomfortable and my little buddy and I spoke rarely of it again. We seemed to have forgotten about it a few weeks later as we set on to our next journey of adventure, but left the matches at home.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 15:48:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015