WEBVTT - Stuff You Should Know July 4th Extravaganza, Part 2: Baseball and Apple Pie 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:18.479 from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, we're back. I 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:21.520 guess you could say it's a part two of two. 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:24.360 This is the second concluding part of our two part 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:27.680 series on America, the part of the July. You gotta 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:29.639 say hey and welcome to the podcast because this is 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:33.440 uh the beginning of part two. Yeah, but we're technically 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:35.880 in the middle. All right, Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:38.320 Thank you? You feel better? All right? So this is 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:40.920 uh picking up where we left off. We still don't 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.400 know where we cut off, so our guess is as 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:47.560 good as yours and vice versa. Awesome. This is stuff 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:50.279 you should know about America from the serious X Time 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:53.160 studios in New York City. Now more it's from Josh 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.880 and Shucks actually doing Thank you Jay, Thank you Jill. 0:00:57.680 --> 0:00:59.200 That was as great as I hoped it would be. 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:02.319 Joe Angel something when he told me he's like, we're 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:03.960 gonna need another mic in a v I P seat 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:07.560 because I got someone doing footnotes, like what what does 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:11.120 that mean? And now I know? And knowing is half 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:14.600 the battle. That's what I do. So chuck. Um, I 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:17.559 don't think we could do a July four show reasonably 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:20.640 and not talk about fireworks, right, It'd be a big 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:23.199 rip off. I mean, I don't think there's any better 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:27.120 way to enjoy a fireworks display than to know the 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:31.080 chemistry that's going behind it, right. I feel like you 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.520 take that that kind of understand well, whether you like 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:37.840 it or not, we're going to teach you this right now, right. Yeah, man, 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:40.959 you're the expert on this, but I do like, well, 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:43.480 I'll chime in. Go ahead, it's gonna be like I 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.120 like the name of the Chinese manual. Well, you take 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:48.040 the name of the Chinese manual first. Let me set 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:51.800 you up, okay, um? So, uh, fireworks are based on 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:54.880 black powder, which has been around since at least ten 0:01:54.960 --> 0:02:00.200 forty four. Uh, and it was discovered in China, right, Um. 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.120 It was either the result of some alchemists who are 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.920 looking for a way to preserve youth or a hapless 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.280 chef who accidentally discovered it. Can I stop you there, 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:14.160 because I've the first one doesn't make any sense to me. 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:17.560 The second one does, I get it. Chinese chef making 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:21.160 bananas foster or something. Boom and all of a sudden, 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:25.240 there's there's gunpowder. But how does gunpowder figure into trying 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:27.600 to make yourself look younger? Is what I wanted. I 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:29.959 don't know. I have no answer for that. I charcoal, 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:35.720 I guess, potassium nitrate, which is saltpeter, and then the sulfur. 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:39.040 I think if you applied those things separately to your 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:41.440 face and then wash them off well enough and just 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:43.560 don't light it right, well, if you know, if you 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:46.119 got too close to a fire, then ka boom okay, yeah, 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:48.160 all right, well that makes sense now, but those are 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.280 the three ingredients in black powder, right, that's right? And uh, 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:53.560 I wanted to point out the Chinese. Uh, we know 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.320 it has been around since ten forty four because it 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.919 was in the Collection of the most Important Military Techniques. 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:02.280 That's what they called their book. It is a good 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:06.520 book name, pretty straightforward. So um, however they discovered it 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:10.520 um Now, I don't know if they understood what was 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:12.359 going on back then. Now we have a pretty good 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:16.360 understanding of what's going on with black powder. Right. So 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:20.520 you've got um, potassium nitrate, which is saltpeter, which is 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:28.239 um an oxidizer. Right, Yeah, that's like the mix is charcoal, 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:31.840 which is fuel, and then you've got sulfur, which is 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:34.880 a reducing agent, and that's the last ten percent, that's right. 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:39.040 So you mix them all together, you introduce flame, which 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:43.080 ignites it, and all of a sudden, the potassium nitrate 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:47.080 starts releasing all this oxygen which feeds the charcoal a right, 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:49.720 binds to it and creates the light and the heat 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:55.000 that you see in fireworks. Right boom, Right, we're almost there, um. 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.800 And then you have the oxygen from the potassium nitrate 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:03.480 also re acting with the sulfur to create this explosive force. 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:07.320 As c O two and nitrate, nitrogen are produced and 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:14.600 they expand and that's the boom right yeah, okay, and okay, 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.160 you just hit it earlier to get a point. So 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:21.279 you've got the sulfur and the oxygen binding together, creating 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.240 C O two and nitrogen and that's where you get 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:28.520 the explosive force. Boom, Thank you, it was good. You 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:31.279 wouldn't think it'd be that hard. Um. And that's that's 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:35.040 the basis of um fireworks, right, Yeah, that's the basis 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.279 of the firecracker. And so now we move on to sparklers, 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:40.520 which is pretty much the same thing it pretty much is. 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:42.359 But what you do with the sparkler is you have 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:44.840 that black powder, add a little sugar, add a little water, 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:46.919 and you get something called you know, sort of like 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:50.680 a slurry. You dip your stick into it, as it were, 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:55.400 and uh metal stick. And because everything's spread out, it's 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:57.760 not gonna be like as volatile and create a big 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:01.160 flash bang boom, it's over. It's spread out because it's 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:03.720 mixed with a slurry. And you add a little uh 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.960 whatton metal to that, like some sort of metal dust 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:09.960 or shavings, and then that heats up and jumps off 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:13.320 and becomes incandescent. And there's a sparkler. What's the noise 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:18.680 for that sparkler? Okay, there we go. There's just sparkling. 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:21.440 And the reason this is important is because when you 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:23.320 go out on the fourth of July wherever you do 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.279 that here in New York, imagine there everywhere and you 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:30.640 see the big pyrotechnic display, it is really just versions 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.560 of sparklers and firecrackers, right. The sparkler and the firecracker 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.560 the basis of all other fireworks. Right, that's right. So 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:40.720 these aerial displays, it's just a shell which is like 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:44.320 a ball filled with black powder and then little pellets 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:48.760 of um sparkler composition that they call stars, right, And 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:51.320 in the middle of that is a firecracker, and you 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:53.520 use a lifting charge to send it into the air, 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:57.719 and the lifting charge ignites the fuse nice and then 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.280 when it when it hits a certain altitude and that 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:02.719 that fuse goes off and the firecracker in the middle 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:06.039 blows up. It ignites the black powder. Right. So there's 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:09.599 your explosion, and that in turn sends the pellets the 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:13.120 stars scattered lights them and there's your firework. That's it, 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:15.760 as you say about it being bot a boom bon 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:20.159 Jovi fireworks. Let's say that. And you can get fancy 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:21.880 with it if you want to cobble these together. You 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:25.400 cobble the shells together, add something called a breaking charge, 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:27.760 and that is when you see like the one shell 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.200 explode and then that breaking charge sets off the other ones. 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:32.920 And that's where you get the cool little things that 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.400 everyone ooze and oz at. Right. And then you add 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:40.320 some chemical salts for color. That's right, like, uh, what 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:44.560 do we have blue for copper? Blue is copper, Stronium 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:50.800 is red, and then stronium and copper make purple. Wow, 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:55.159 look at you. I got sodium for yellow, calcium for orange, 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:59.960 aluminium for my British friends, uh is silver and bare 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:04.000 m is green. Pretty neat, right. So now when you're 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:06.800 watching the fireworks display, you can curse us because you're 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.400 sitting there thinking about the sulfur is a reducing agent? 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:15.720 What's that smell? Oh, that's the reducing agent. Just give 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:18.000 me a beard and shut up exactly. So that's a 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:21.320 that's a fireworks, right. But but that's just like fireworks 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:25.000 when they go right, that's that's the optimum of what 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:27.520 can happen with firework what we just said, right, But 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:29.520 we live in La la land in a lot of ways, 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:33.000 and fireworks don't always go well right. So um, we 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:36.800 have our friend Hallie heglind here to talk to us about, 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.520 um when fireworks don't go so well. Right, that's right. 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:42.800 Hally apparently has a pretty true story for us. So 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:53.480 everybody welcome Holly. All right, let's see that's right. I 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:56.920 was good? Is this good? Should I lower this? Or 0:07:57.760 --> 0:07:59.440 I don't even know who I'm talking You can probably 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:03.480 you can write angle it down. Okay, this is the 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:07.200 highlight of the show. Yeah, never let it be said that, Um, 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.440 Josh and Chuck, don't teach the controversy, because that's why 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:17.000 I'm here. Um, alright, Well, I have some facts and 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.840 figures in my presentation, so I may need to refer 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:23.480 to my notes. Um. But I'm sure that you've all 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:28.160 seen the public service videos that local news stations roll 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:30.720 out around this time of year. You know, there's like 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:37.599 a fake adorable child posed in a field of grass 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:41.360 and uh, you know, obviously celebrating something because they're wearing 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:45.240 something really nice from the local J C. Pennies. Um. 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:49.040 And uh, you know it's a mannequin that's completely faceless, um, 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:52.360 and yet human like because they put a straw sun 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:56.640 sun hat on the head to remind you, like, be careful, 0:08:57.040 --> 0:09:02.000 this fake child is sensitive to the sun. So you know, 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:04.360 so that so that, so the mannequin is posed in 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:08.800 like some position of youthful curiosity, and all of a 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:13.960 sudden boom, you know, a Roman candle blows its head off, 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:17.200 and in the blink of an eye there's nothing but 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:20.960 like a cloud of smoke and lime dust and a 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:26.920 sin straw hat two feet away in the grass. So um, 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:30.840 this is uh what we all see every day. You 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.640 know the hazards of fireworks, and if it's if it's 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:37.400 a low budget sort of news station, they actually just 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:42.720 blow up a watermelon. But either way they teach you 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.840 the havoc that fireworks can wreak upon our nation's children 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:51.959 or our nation's fruit. Yeah. So if you don't think 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:55.760 fireworks are dangerous, can I ask you a question? Okay, 0:09:56.080 --> 0:10:00.880 since how many fireworks fact stories do you think have 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:06.320 burned down? According to my not very thorough research, it's 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:12.920 up five okay, so Denmark, Holland, the UK, England, and 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:17.079 the Philippines. So here let me get my numbers. If 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:24.040 you don't think they're dangerous, just ask the one one thousand, 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:27.880 two hundred and fifty people in n Shade, Holland left 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:32.120 homeless after nine ms, which I did the math. It's 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:36.040 one thousand, nine hundred and eighty pounds of fireworks were 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.800 accidentally detonated at their local factory. Or talked to the 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:42.959 people of Cavite in the Philippines who felt the ground 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.640 shake nearly two miles away from the explosion when a 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:51.840 demonstration at their local firecracker factory went wrong. Or the 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:56.480 two thousand people evacuated from ceased to Denmark, when factory 0:10:56.480 --> 0:11:00.199 workers accidentally dropped a container of fireworks somehow called using 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:05.680 it to ignite. I watched a lot of internet videos 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:08.640 in my research, and I will say, if you have 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:13.800 to witness a human tragedy firsthand, um, a fireworks factory 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:18.120 exploding is definitely the coolest you are going to come by. 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:22.440 I mean, it's like cooler than the Disney World fireworks display. 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:27.079 I'd say, yeah, Um, did you know that while celebrating 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.280 Chinese New Year in two thousand nine, it only took 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:35.280 one stray firecracker to burn down Beijing's thirties story luxury 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:40.920 Mandarin Hotel. Now, to be fair, the Chinese are unincredibly 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:44.200 efficient people, so what took them one firework would probably 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:48.360 take us like reliefs of box okay um. In the 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:51.800 United States, in two thousand ten, the Consumer Products Safety 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:56.840 Commission reported three firework related desk deaths, which is up 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:01.120 fifty percent from two. That was in nine, when only 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:05.760 two firework related deaths were reported. And I don't expect 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:08.760 the trend to turn around, because, let's face it, the 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:12.360 economy is going to hell this Fourth of July. Americans 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:14.920 are gonna want nothing more than to just throw back 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:20.120 a six pack and just sparkler the world away. Okay, Okay, 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:25.000 So maybe the cold hard statistics don't touch you. Maybe 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:29.520 something more anecdote will get through to you. So I 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:33.840 have witnessed the brutality of the firework firsthand. Let me 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:41.320 take you back to Denver, Colorado, five of July. I 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:43.960 am about to turn ten and my older brother Eric 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.480 is fourteen. And you should know in Denver there is 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:49.880 about a week right around the fourth of July where 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:56.439 summer drought and a child stockpile of fireworks both simultaneously 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:00.560 reach their peak. Um, so we have really hoarded this 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:04.240 incredible stash. I mean we had every kind of fire work. 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:07.040 We had snaps, we had sparklers, we had bottle rockets, 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:10.440 we had Roman candles, we had tanks, we had snakes, 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:13.600 we had bird cages, and of course we had smoke bombs. 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:17.040 So um, we had sort of burned through most of 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:20.800 our reserves. On the driveway the night before. My father 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:22.720 has all these pictures that he took of us at night, 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.360 and we're like crouch next to the garage door, and 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:29.160 I'm wearing this Mexican pueble address that my mom bought 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:32.960 for me. In Portavayarta, and my brother's wearing his hot 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:37.160 pink jams, and you can see we're just sort of 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:41.520 mesmerized by this black cat screech and scream fountain that 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:45.680 we've just ignited. And uh, you know, there's like a 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:50.120 deadness in my eyes and something about how I never 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:52.480 brushed my hair that I'm really like spot on for 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:57.000 Drew Barrymore and the fire starter posters, and um, my 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.680 brother just keeps begging, like just one more, just one more, 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:01.400 like like he's going to go into withdrawal if we 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:05.800 stopped lighting fireworks. So what I'm saying is I feel like, 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:09.280 looking at this picture, you could tell we were already 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:14.199 struggling with some pretty serious demons. The next day, I 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:17.120 was in a fog all day, you know, despite a 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:21.160 full night of sleep. I was exhausted after our explosives bender, 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:25.760 and so, uh, sometime in the afternoon, I went to 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:27.920 the basement to find a cool place, and I was 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:31.240 watching a current affair if you guys remember that, and 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:34.080 I I must have drifted off because I remember I 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:38.360 was awakened by a sound of sirens. Now my brother, 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:41.000 I didn't know this at the time, was upstairs with 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:43.800 three other boys from our block on the street, and 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:47.400 they were playing this game that we played in our 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:51.360 neighborhood all the time. I really hope no children are 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:53.400 listening to this, and if you are, this is really 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.840 bad game, so don't play this game. I was sort 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:59.800 of um, you know. It was a spinoff of ding 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.480 on Ditchum. So one person would go stand on the 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:07.320 porch um poised to ring the doorbell, while another person 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.320 would stand in the street with a smoke bomb. So 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.560 as soon as the smoke bomb was lit in the street, 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:14.320 the person on the porch would ring the doorbell and 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:16.400 then run away and the person in the street would 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:21.080 throw the smoke bomb. So ideally, your neighbor opens their 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:23.680 door to a cloud of smoke and they think like 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:28.440 a wizard just rung the door, and then they got 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:34.760 really shy or something. But let me remind you again 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.960 that Denver was a tinder box at that time of year, 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:42.520 so my brother and his friends probably should have skipped 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:45.880 the house across the street, the four Stads House, which 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:50.960 was flanked by these two huge juniper trees. Uh actually 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:54.320 historic trees. We later found out they were planted by 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:59.200 the then governor Roy Romer's father in law, and about 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:03.560 fifty years fire, and every so often the roamers would 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:05.800 pile in their car and just drive through the neighborhood 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.480 to check out how their trees were doing, because that's 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.480 really what people in Colorado do for fun, They go 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:14.960 and check out trees that they planted a long time ago. 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:20.080 So it was actually my brother who threw the offending 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:24.200 smoke bomb, and the smoke bomb was blue, so he 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:26.680 he lit it and he aimed at the porch, but 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:29.280 his aim was off and so instead of landing on 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.000 the porch, it landed in the juniper tree on the right, 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:35.960 and everyone just sort of sat there, stunned as the 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:39.960 smoke billowing from the tree turned from blue to light 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:46.400 blue to gray, and then you just heard this crackling sound. 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:49.240 And it didn't take long for the fire for the 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:52.520 fire in one tree to spread to the adjacent tree, 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:55.440 and then to the roof of the four Stats house, 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:57.880 and then to the roof of the neighbors of the 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:01.240 four Stats House, and they just sort of stood there 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:04.359 stunt like, how could this game have possibly gone back? 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.240 And my mom, actually I was talking to this morning, 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.480 and she reminded me of the fact that she at 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:12.600 some point had come out onto the porch and when 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:15.080 she saw fire, and she just saw the kids frozen 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:17.679 in the street, and and they just looked her and 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:19.320 they we don't know what to do. We don't know 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.120 what to do. But then instead of running to my house, 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.040 they ran to one of the other boys houses because 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.359 the mom was way nicer, and they hid in the 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:32.200 bathroom while the mom called the fire department. So, you know, 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:35.840 after all there were there were the two trees were 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:39.200 totally destroyed, and there was serious damage to two roofs, 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:42.280 and also the four stops car which had been marked 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:46.560 in the driveway. So that night, um everyone assembled for 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.960 sort of a disciplinary meeting on our side porch would have, 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:54.840 which happened to offer a prime view of the charred, 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:58.720 scorched earth across the street. And uh, you know, it 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:00.760 was all the boys and all the parents, and I 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:02.960 sort of tiptoed out and was just standing on the 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:07.080 edge watching everything, and all the parents thought that the 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:11.359 boys were just staring down because they were so shamed 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:14.520 and sort of in shame and deference, when really I 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.159 was just nobody wanted to look up because if they 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:20.080 look sideways, they would just burst out laughing. I mean, 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:23.480 it was so pathetic how this forest house looked. It 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:27.080 was it looked like one unlucky house on like a 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:31.800 beautiful block had just been struck by lightning. And as 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:35.119 they discussed what kind of work the boys could do 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:40.000 to pay off the four thoughts insurance deductible, I listened 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.960 and I really, I really had no impulse to laugh 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:47.359 because I thought about how easily that sorry smoke bomb 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:51.000 toss could have been mine. And so as they laid 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:54.480 out chores that they could possibly do, I just thought, there, 0:18:54.520 --> 0:19:00.280 but for the grace of God, go I I feel sure. 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:03.879 Now that's a true story, right, yeah, she said, She 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:09.639 talked to her mom. Oh well that makes it true, right, So, Um, Chuck, 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:12.840 I used to blow stuff up like crazy? Yeah, like, uh, 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.000 model cars. Any guy's ever strapped like bottle rockets to 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:18.240 their model cars and try and make them? Guys a 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:22.600 rather like, oh yeah, dude, still do did you ever, 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.440 um break the sticks off of bottle rockets and line 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:26.760 them and just throw them and see where they go, 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:31.040 Just see what happened? That's what actually I would. Me 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:33.320 and my buddy Chuck built this. Uh. I had a 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:36.880 friend named chuck growing up, either that or a very 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:43.679 sad child. I built. We built bottle rocket guns in 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:45.840 his little wood shop he had, like his dad made 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:47.760 the little rubber band guns and sold them at fairs 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:51.399 and stuff. So we modified those two hold bottle rockets 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:53.119 and you drop it in and throw the little flap 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.560 down and shoot them at each other. So what what 0:19:56.680 --> 0:20:00.440 kind of modifications are required specifically? Well, we we used 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:02.679 the stock of the gun, it was like a rifle, 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:05.480 and then we basically just got rid of the rubber 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:08.679 band part and made a box with a flap on 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:11.240 top like a door because you didn't want it to, 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:13.760 you know, shoot back at you, so you would light it, 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:15.560 put it in there, and we kind of dug out 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:18.359 a groove so it goes straight. We put a lot 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:20.520 of thought into this, and you know you would light 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:25.159 it and then shoot at your friend bon Jovi. Yea, 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:29.840 So did you patent that? No? We should have. Actually, yeah, 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:35.080 we'll have to go home and hold him in Denver evidently. So, um, 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:39.240 let's talk American dreams, shall we? Yeah? Man, the American 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:41.639 dream as a thing. And you did most of this 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:44.439 research and you put this one on me too. No, 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:45.600 no, no no, I'm not putting this one on you, but 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:47.800 I'm just, uh, I notice from your research when I 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:50.600 looked at this, the American dreams sort of his ebbed 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:54.480 and flowed from the it's early origins, and it's sort 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.760 of coincides with like how the economy is doing. Right, 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:00.600 then pretty much it's either like, yes, the can dream 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:04.119 or oh it's dead, yeah, and then it's alive again, 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:06.640 and then it's dead. And I also noticed the American 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:10.359 dream is either like every man for himself and like 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:12.400 you just do the best you can and make as 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:15.160 much money as you can, or it's all about community 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:17.840 and looking out from one another, and all that depends 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:20.959 on how the economy is doing. That's right, because if 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:24.120 everybody's broke, everybody's like, yeah, of course, government spending, that's 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:27.360 what the American dreams about. And uh, if if everyone's 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:30.320 making money, then you know, everyone turns into Patrick Bateman 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:33.640 all of a sudden. So let's talk about it, Chuck. 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:35.720 Where did where did this come from? Obviously it was 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:40.040 the famed historian James Truslow Adams, who wrote the ninety 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:43.159 one book The Epic of America, Right, yeah, and that's 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:46.800 where he mentioned the American Dream, but earlier than that, 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:51.080 in sixteen thirty, John Winthrop gave his famous City upon 0:21:51.119 --> 0:21:55.359 a Hill sermon to his fellow Puritan colonists, and um, 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:58.520 he didn't use the word dream, but he did detail 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:02.240 a vision of society where everyone could prosper, everyone could 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:05.159 get ahead as long as you just team together and 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:08.439 work together and followed the Bible, right exactly. But but 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:10.719 that kind of laid out the groundwork for the American 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:14.640 dream that in America, specifically, if you worked really hard, 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:18.600 the sky was the limit. Right, that's right. Okay, So, um, 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:21.880 that was sixteen thirty when Winthrop gave that City upon 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:25.200 a Hill sermon. Uh, and then by seventeen seventy six 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:29.840 when t. J. Sat down from June eleven to um, 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:34.280 it was a god given, inalienable right to succeed because 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:37.719 it's in the it's in the Constitution. We're guaranteed the 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:41.000 the life, liberty in the pursuit of happiness. Right, that's right, 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:43.919 which is kind of the the American dream in a nutshell, 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:46.199 it's the pursuit of happiness. Yeah, does that? What does 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:48.040 the Statue of liberty saying? Now, that's awful. I don't 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:50.600 know that is that what it says there? Now, what 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:54.520 does it say something? It says like yeah, all that 0:22:54.520 --> 0:22:57.720 other stuff. People are just shouting out words. He says, 0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:03.080 welcome to Shawnees. Did you see this? And it's not 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:06.960 a torch, but it's a burger. So um, the the 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:10.960 the the Declaration of Independence really kind of gives the 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:13.919 lift to the American dream. But it's really it becomes 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:17.400 embodied in the nineteenth century. Um, there was a guy 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:22.040 named Alexis to Tokoville, right, that took this is a 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:26.040 sort of a snotty thing to say, laughing. Yeah, uh, 0:23:26.080 --> 0:23:27.640 it might not have been a snotty thing to say, 0:23:27.680 --> 0:23:30.920 but because he was French, I took it that way. Um. 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:34.080 He visited the United States in the eighteen thirties and 0:23:34.119 --> 0:23:38.479 he called this belief the charm of anticipated success. And 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:40.960 that just sounds sort of like like it's not real, 0:23:41.080 --> 0:23:43.560 it's just the charm. He's British all of a sudden. 0:23:45.280 --> 0:23:47.520