Dumb Things We Did as Kids on 4July

[mr. ed]

I recall some downright dangerous things we did as youngsters, growing up in Long Island NY.

For example, we would divide into 2 groups, standing at a distance from each other, and fire roman candles or bottle rockets at each group. fortunately, we were quick enough to dodge the fireballs coming towards us.

Also, we would tie an ash can firework to an arrow, light it, and fire the arrow straight up into the sky where it would explode. Of course, the arrow would come down and land who knows where.

Placing a cherry bomb or ash can under a tin can and watching it fly up into the air was another source of entertainment.

We'd also light a string of firecrackers and throw it at someone's feet

Amazingly, no one ever got hurt. I guess our youthful reflexes kept us out of danger!

[Old-Biscuit]

YES......Roman Candle fights

We had what we called 'Fire Balls'
Small paper mâché balls with powder inside. Throw them down onto a hard surface and they would POP

Course we would dare each other to hold one in the palm of our hand and then slap hands together hard making them go off......leaving a blackened spot that hurt like the dickens

Hold a string of fire crackers, light them off and see who held onto them the longest

Light M-80s and wait to throw them ....see whose went off the closest to us

And that was just some of the bone-head moves we made over the course of a weekend.
Many other dumba** moves during the rest of the year

Along with doing things that were quite common.....pickup bed full of kids
Riding on the fenders of the farm tractor
Playing in the corn silos
Challenging the BULL

Amazing I am still kicking dirt .......

[Mudfrog]

High school years, had roman candle and bottle rocket wars with fellow goofballs in the neighborhood. There were a few burns at times but no one ever required professional medical attention.

The dumbest, actually the stupidest and most dangerous, was using other fireworks to make an item that destroyed my 17 gallon galvanized washtub when it blew it over 30 foot into the air.

[mr. ed]

Originally Posted by Old-Biscuit

YES......Roman Candle fights

We had what we called 'Fire Balls'
Small paper mâché balls with powder inside. Throw them down onto a hard surface and they would POP

Course we would dare each other to hold one in the palm of our hand and then slap hands together hard making them go off......leaving a blackened spot that hurt like the dickens

Hold a string of fire crackers, light them off and see who held onto them the longest

Light M-80s and wait to throw them ....see whose went off the closest to us

And that was just some of the bone-head moves we made over the course of a weekend.
Many other dumba** moves during the rest of the year

Along with doing things that were quite common.....pickup bed full of kids
Riding on the fenders of the farm tractor
Playing in the corn silos
Challenging the BULL

Amazing I am still kicking dirt .......

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.

[Country Road]

We made the equal of today’s potato guns. We took a 3/4” lead water pipe, made a handle for one end, cut a hole on the top, broke off a corncob in the open end and lit a firecracker in the pipe cutout.

All the older grandkids would try to hit each other with the corncobs. So much fun until after a few years of doing this, one of my cousins took one in the eye. Grandma put an end to this game. My cousin did get over the injury.

[inthepines]

when kids could do stupid kids stuff and have fun.. Ok you might lose an eye or a finger but it was a learning experience and I bet you wouldn't do that again

[TandW]

We wuz poor. So we made poppers out of folded paper.

[bigb56]

We had a home made cannon but didn't consider our steel ramrod could spark against the pipe cannon which it did one night and put the ramrod thru the car port roof

[dwirch]

Ahh, yes. The good ol' roman candle fights.

Since we lived on a lake in the woods, and didn't want to catch the woods on fire, we had naval battles. 5-8 rowboats out on the lake, shooting roman candles at each other, among other things.

We also stumbled across the some 4" PVC pipe, and fashioned a kind off megaphone for firecrackers. Until someone tried an M-80 in it, flinging PVC shrapnel everywhere.

Good times. I amazed I still have all my appendages.

[JohnBike]

I grew up (sort of) in what is now called Silicon Valley. We were surrounded by orchards, mostly oranges and apricots. Just before harvest time, there would be tall stacks of orange crates all over the orchards.
Our ‘cracker wars consisted of building forts with the crates. Then we’d pluck a few oranges, poke a firecracker in one, light the fuse, and toss. If we timed it right, the sucker would detonate on its way to one of our opponents. We all went home with our own private swarms of flies.

[inthepines]

Originally Posted by JohnBike

I grew up (sort of) in what is now called Silicon Valley. We were surrounded by orchards, mostly oranges and apricots. Just before harvest time, there would be tall stacks of orange crates all over the orchards.
Our ‘cracker wars consisted of building forts with the crates. Then we’d pluck a few oranges, poke a firecracker in one, light the fuse, and toss. If we timed it right, the sucker would detonate on its way to one of our opponents. We all went home with our own private swarms of flies.

we would do that with crabapples. Doesn't sound as fun as an orange exploding though haha

[Alpine36]

Firecrackers under banana slugs, talk about a mess.
Oh, and those homemade sparkler bombs...we put one inside an old washing machine once and blew the whole top of it onto the neighbors garage roof. The fire department was not amused.
That one got me a month of extra summer chores, mostly for the neighbor.

[mr. ed]

Another dumb, and cruel, thing we did was sticking a firecracker in a live toad's mouth. Just did it once, and would never again be cruel to any living creature.

[MSHappyCampers]

I grew up in a small town, maybe 1500 if you count dogs and cats. The town had a Marshall during the day, and a night watchman at night. The night watchman was an old guy that parked at the main intersection and slept most of the time.

On holidays us guys would drive by and throw cherry bombs under his car. By the time they exploded we would be at the other end of the street. He would get really mad and try to catch us, but he never did!

I really miss those days of growing up in a small town.........