40. An invasion at lunchtime has teachers on the warpath.

Lunchtime – Peter* unfurled his fist revealing – as we gasped –

Polished brass, real, live bullet.

8 y.o. wisdom:

“Errr, if you throw it on the ground it’ll explode!”

Throw after throw – silence.**

Then …

Kids ducked, looked for war-planes flying low above.

Uh Oh.

We weren’t at war, but teachers were on the warpath.

Note:

* You have met 2 out of the 3 infant school perpetrators before – they eventually belonged to the Cameron’s Bakery Treehouse Club. The third one you’ll find in that same class photo (see: #38 The Treehouse Gang) – he is on the far left of the 2nd row from the front – Peter Elzer. Oh! the other two – Peter Kershaw and yours truly. The owner of the bullet – Peter. All of us around 2 years older in that photo than at the time of the exploding bullet.

** For many years I wondered why the bullet was so hard to detonate … and I suddenly realised we were throwing so that the tip of the bullet had impact with the ground, yet the bullet is detonated by impact with the “primer” at the base of the bullet.

 

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