Community Forums

Flyer15015 · 07-06-2022, 12:30 PM

Growing up on the edge of town, we had a "woods" and creek nearby.
20+ kids choose up sides every Saturday for the BB gun fight.
No helmet or glasses, and just a leather jacket, if you were smart.
Usually lasted 4 hours or so, and we would show off the welts on Monday in school.

Mike in Colorado

MSHappyCampers · 07-06-2022, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyer15015

Growing up on the edge of town, we had a "woods" and creek nearby.
20+ kids choose up sides every Saturday for the BB gun fight.
No helmet or glasses, and just a leather jacket, if you were smart.
Usually lasted 4 hours or so, and we would show off the welts on Monday in school.

Mike in Colorado

Did anybody end up blind?

Old-Biscuit · 07-06-2022, 01:27 PM

Made it thru this 4th w/o doing anything stupid.

TexasTom · 07-07-2022, 09:21 AM

Oh my... were we stupid!

Remember those cheap balsa wood gliders? Well we figured out if we taped bottle rockets to the wings we would have a jet powered plane and then...boom!

Then, being the rocket scientists that we had then become, we figured if we taped an M-80 to it we would then have a rocket powered bomber!

Yep, no control over where it happened. First two times were fun...the 3rd time the M-80 landed on a car.

Ray,IN · 07-08-2022, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr. ed

OMG! Lighting an M-80 and holding it as long as you can! That could have resulted in some lost fingers. Makes me think of releasing the clip on a hand grenade and hesitating to throw it! Of course, a hand grenade would cause a bit more damage.

NEVER count higher than 4 before throwing a grenade, or you may count no more.

GABob · 07-08-2022, 04:34 PM

Here’s something safe and fun to do with the grandkids, although you do want the adult to set it up. Take a bucket of cold water and an empty 2 liter plastic soda bottle. Mix a solution of lye and water in the bottle and place in the bucket. Then take aluminum foil, bunch it and feed it into the bottle. Then take a balloon and place over the bottle (preferably larger ones). Hydrogen will be released and fill the balloon. Once filled, tie off and repeat. You know have floating balloons!

Of course, we would tie several together and tape some home made flash powder to them along with a fuse. They would float up for awhile and then poof! You can leave out this part…

BC Buck · 07-08-2022, 04:37 PM

Saw one of Dads cows relieve it self. Had soft bowls but there it lay hot and steamy. Thought would be fun to stick a fire cracker in it. Just my luck picked a firecracker that had a fast fuse. Went off with my face about 18" from the explosion. You know how the rest of the story went.

Old-Biscuit · 07-08-2022, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BC Buck

Saw one of Dads cows relieve it self. Had soft bowls but there it lay hot and steamy. Thought would be fun to stick a fire cracker in it. Just my luck picked a firecracker that had a fast fuse. Went off with my face about 18" from the explosion. You know how the rest of the story went.

Christmas vacation down on the ole homestead (PaPa's)
I was 6 and my brother was 15
I got a NEW coat........
My brother & older cousins had some1 1/2" Black Cat fire crackers
As we were playing around in the pasture they stuck couple of them in a fresh patty unaware to me
BOOM.......I was covered in cow patty and my new coat was stained.
I cried.

BC Buck · 07-09-2022, 06:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old-Biscuit

Christmas vacation down on the ole homestead (PaPa's)
I was 6 and my brother was 15
I got a NEW coat........
My brother & older cousins had some1 1/2" Black Cat fire crackers
As we were playing around in the pasture they stuck couple of them in a fresh patty unaware to me
BOOM.......I was covered in cow patty and my new coat was stained.
I cried.

If I had to bet, you cried because the rest where slapping there knees and laughing hysterically.

wildcatter · 07-09-2022, 07:53 AM

We use to take acetylene filled balloons, light the wax covered string and let them go, we also took the used parachute fireworks, filled them with black gun powder, put a new fuse in it, clued a plastic end on it, wrapped it in electrical tape. M80s had nothing on those. We would also take rocket engines from the model rockets and mount them on a toy car/boats, put a m80 on the end so it would light when the rocket engine was done and blow up what ever it was on. That os on top of bb gun/bottle rocket and sling shot fights. Ohhh being young.

Ray,IN · 07-09-2022, 11:41 AM

Children and adults still do dumb things. Last weekend a small boy was killed when he was too close to a mortar when it exploded.
In Florida a man lost a hand when the fireworks he was holding exploded.
Remember folks, all this stuff comes directly from China by the boatload.

dbircky · 07-09-2022, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildcatter

We use to take acetylene filled balloons, light the wax covered string and let them go, we also took the used parachute fireworks, filled them with black gun powder, put a new fuse in it, clued a plastic end on it, wrapped it in electrical tape. M80s had nothing on those. We would also take rocket engines from the model rockets and mount them on a toy car/boats, put a m80 on the end so it would light when the rocket engine was done and blow up what ever it was on. That os on top of bb gun/bottle rocket and sling shot fights. Ohhh being young.

We played with acetylene balloons too. Until that one time we decided to use a 55 gallon drum liner. WHAT? was the most common sentence spoken for a while around the farm. Mom swore the chickens stopped laying for a couple of days.

On a more serious note, several years ago some roofers were working on top of a school around the 4th. One of them had made a canon out of a 4 foot length of old steam pipe by welding one end closed. They decided to shoot it off. After filling it with gunpowder and lighting it, it went off with quite the noise. Unfortunately, the weld also went off the back where they were standing for “safety” and hit one of them in the head, killing him instantly.

HopsBrewster · 07-09-2022, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyer15015

Growing up on the edge of town, we had a "woods" and creek nearby.
20+ kids choose up sides every Saturday for the BB gun fight.
No helmet or glasses, and just a leather jacket, if you were smart.
Usually lasted 4 hours or so, and we would show off the welts on Monday in school.

Mike in Colorado

We did that too. It was all fun n games until someone showed up with a CO2 pellet gun.

mr. ed · 07-30-2022, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ray,IN

NEVER count higher than 4 before throwing a grenade, or you may count no more.

When I was in Marine boot camp back in the mid 60's, we were at grenade practice one day, learning how to properly throw a grenade. The recruits would stand within a sandbagged enclosure, release the clip and throw the grenade over the wall. A drill instructor would stand in the same enclosure, carefully watching the recruit in case he "messed up. Well, one recruit was ready to toss his grenade and accidentally dropped it. The Di quickly grabbed it and tossed it. As much as I disliked the way these DI's usually treated us, I came to respect the fact that there were times they would put their lives in jeopardy to save the life of a recruit (and, in this case, his own as well)