The no fire at Peter Boveys home

Rebecca wanted me to tell the story of how I saved Peter Bovey's home from burning down.

It all started in our home. One night we were watching cartoons. You know how young people are. They don't see the value in watching the NEWS. Mother was in the kitchen. She was probably cooking chicken on top of the stove. When all of a sudden she screamed. We all ran into the kitchen to see what the noise was about. My dad calmly put the lid on the fire, and the fire was out.

Then he showed us what happens when the lid came off. He was probably just having fun with us. He took the lid off, and the fire flamed up again. He put the lid on, took the lid off, put the lid on. Then came the boring lecture, blah, blah, blah.

It must have made an impression. Just a little while later I was over at Peter Boveys home. He was my best friend. We were close. We used to have sleep overs at each other home. At his home they had a trundle bed. It was stored under his bed, so to make it work, they just pulled it out from under his bed and lifted it up and snap - a bed. At my home I just remember sleeping out of doors in the back yard.

Well one time, Peter wanted to make some popcorn. Now the Boveys were known for their reckless abandon. Peter had an older brother Jamie, and an older sister Jennifer. Many times they just did things without thinking through the whole process. Peter showed me how to cut the heads off matches and stuff them into an empty 30-06 shell. Then you place this at the backend of a pipe that your friend was holding. It was kind of like a bazooka. Then you light the end of the shell and it shoots out of the front of the pipe. It was really cool. Many years later Peter showed me a missing digit on his finger. I asked him what happened, and he said, he packed the shell too tight, and it exploded in his hand.

Another time after a sleep over we were all sitting around the kitchen table having breakfast. Probably it was pancakes. Then Jennifer came in and announced that she just lost her virginity. There was a hush that came over the room, they then rushed her into another room. I had no idea what was going on. Peter even tried to explain this to me but I still did not understand. I must have been younger. Remember that Jesus explained "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven".

Jamie gave me my first motorcycle ride. It was a Honda 50. It was just about out of gas. He said when you are out of gas you just turn the throttle all the way open, and you can go for miles on the fumes.

Oh yeah, the popcorn story. It really would not make much impact without the background information about the family. Peter wanted to make some popcorn. This was in the olden days when the only way to make popcorn was heat the oil and popcorn in a pan and shake it until it is done. Well Peter got the pan right, and the oil right, and the seeds right, but we must have got distracted, because the pan just started on fire. Peter started screaming, just like mom. He grabbed the pan and set it on the kitchen floor. I was just watching the whole thing. I just put lid on the pan, just like my father. (I did not take it off, put it on, take it off, put it on, etc.)

I supposed it would have ended there, except we had to explain how the kitchen floor got burned in the shape of the pan.

As I think about this now, they should have given me a life saving award in cub scouts, but maybe they just wanted this story to be forgotten.