When McNerney was a Christmas war zone

 When McNerney was a Christmas war zone

    The fact that our boy was a Christmas baby is documented and it has also been mentioned that he was an appreciative if unemotional gift acceptor. He always was an interesting mixture of an outdoor and indoor kid who was comfortable throwing the old Sheehy pigskin out front, sitting in the front room in front of the Sylvania console watching Christmas specials or putting a model airplane together in his bedroom. Maybe it was the airplane glue but he was much more of an introvert than many dumb kids roaming South Gate at that time. Yet, another fact about the dear lad was that if he liked something he could keep doing it repeatedly, I mean repeatedly. If it were a book he liked (See a Fan's Notes), a PBS documentary on Robert Moses or small toys for little boys that make noise when they are used. This was a year when Greggy asked Santa for a deadly little contraption called "the Bangsite or "Big Bang" Cannon" which involved some patient attention to detail and a smidgen of engineering knowhow. The little cannon when loaded properly and fired  produced an explosion that might be heard several door down but not a menace to the neighborhood, except maybe those poor souls across the street for several houses. Scientifically it can be described as a thermodynamics chemistry demonstration model creates an unforgettable combustion reaction. Specially formulated calcium carbide ammunition is used to safely demonstrate the production and combustion of acetylene gas. In layman's terms the little prick gives off a pop that might cause you to startle a little from whatever you were doing in the Yuletide. Now, Greg was a kid who liked science toys like erector sets or lincoln logs but the cannon really hit the sweet spot on this Christmas day. He took to the curb at 10431 and produced one small explosion after another...all day long. He worked the canno so hard you would have thought it would melt but just like when he was an adult who stuck with what he knew, the bangsite roared on way past Winter to the following Summer.