Many of you hearing this may be too young to remember the exploding whale incident that occurred in Oregon in the late fall of 1970.

Heck, I'm fairly certain that quite a few of you weren't even born yet, so I'll give you the basic overview.

On November 9th, 1970, a 45-foot-long sperm whale washed ashore on the beach near Florence.

For three days, it sat there, drawing spectators, local government officials alike.

After the first day or so, people were warned to stay away from it.

The official reasoning given was that there were concerns that certain onlookers

might climb on top of the carcass and fall in, in addition to the putrid stench that

overtook the entire beach and the threat of the body bursting. In less than two days, the Oregon State Highway Division was called in to dispose of it.

They consulted with the Navy and many munitions experts and came to the conclusion that the best

way to treat it would be like a boulder and used dynamite to blow it up.

And on November 12th, with local and state news watching, they did just that, using half a ton of TNT and creating one hell of an explosion, which sent chunks of whale and sand over a hundred feet in the air, even crushing in the roof of a nearby parked car.

That's the official story, of course.

It's all a load of hogwash, huh?

I know because I made the mistake of getting too close to it one night.

Myself, Harvey.

I was getting a little ahead of myself, though, so let me back it up.

I was just a youngster back then, no more than 11 years old.

I lived with my folks in Florence, which back then was much smaller, and in my opinion, a much nicer place to live than it is today.

I was sitting in the kitchen waiting for my mother to finish making

me waffles and eggs before being taken to school when my father entered, having just stepped

away to receive a phone call. What do they want, Gordon? My mother asked, turning to face us,

causing her black and white checkered apron to swirl slightly on her waist with a spatula

...