In the 1930s my father's family was living in the Union Village area of Woonsocket, Rhode Island. He and his younger brother, John, along with some neighborhood friends had constructed a "club house" in a small shed in the backyard of their home. Somehow the club house apparently caught fire and became a neighborhood event and a news item. The exact cause has never been disclosed by my father or his brother and, in fact, this is the only evidence of the incident -- and it was only discovered in an old scrapbook just recently.
It was probably just one of those rare cases of inexplicable "spontaneous combustion" . . .
Right Dad! That's the story and you and Uncle John should stick to it since no other explanation has arisen in the last 80-some years!
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Scan of original newspaper clipping in the collection of the author.
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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew
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What an interesting newspaper article, John! Knowing boys... I can think of several possible explanations for 'spontaneous combustion' in a boys' playhouse! Funny that no one ever explained what mischief they had gotten into, when they were much older, eh? Not your average memento in a family story book!
ReplyDeleteLol. This reminds me of a scene in the children's book, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, where the children are playing with a chemistry set in the little shed or garage. (That story continues with the firemen coming, the donuts arriving to thank the firemen, and the children disappearing with the donuts.) Did your father have a bent toward experimentation with chemicals when he was a child?
ReplyDeleteHaving parents/ancestors who lived in a small town with a newspaper can be very interesting. And since your father saved the clipping, you didn't have to search for it. Fun.