One sweltering hot summer night when I was 9 years old I was playing on the living room floor with my hotwheels cars.

I had a large wall built with a stack of cars and I was ramming my favorite black chevy van with flames painted on the side into the wall of cars to see how many I could knock over each time.

After about the 90th pass through the stack of cars I heard a loud pop outside that sounded like a firecracker.

I immediately jumped up and ran out the door…