Boys and their fun...

[Bill Mc]

No, tihs wasn't me. Just a good internet story.


Around age 10 my dad got me one of those Little Bad-boy Compound Bow

beginner kits. Of course, the first month I went around our place

sticking arrows in anything that could get stuck by an arrow. Did you

know that a 1955 40 horse Farmall tractor will take 6 rounds before it

goes down? Tough sonofagun.



That got boring, so being the 10 yr. old Dukes of Hazzard fan that I

was, I quickly advanced to taking strips of cut up Tshirt doused in

chainsaw gas tied around the end and was sending flaming arrows all

over the place. Keep in mind this was 99.999% humidity swampland so

there really wasn't any fire danger. I'll put it this way - a set of

post hole diggers and a 3ft. hole and you had yourself a well.



Anyway, one summer afternoon, I was shooting flaming arrows into a

large rotten oak stump in our backyard. I look over under the carport

and see a shiny brand new can of starting fluid (ether). The light

bulb went off. I grabbed the can and set it on the stump. I thought it

would probably just spray out in a disappointing manner . . lets face

it... to a 10 yr. old mouth-breather/experimenting scientist like myself, ether really doesn't "sound"

flammable. So, I went back into the house and got a 1 pound can of

pyrodex (black powder ) to add to the

excitement.



At this point, I set the can of ether on the stump and opened up the

can of black powder. My intentions were to sprinkle a little bit

around the ether can but it all sorta dumped out on me. No

biggie...1lb pyrodex and

16 oz of ether should make a loud pop, kinda like a firecracker - you

know? You know what?heck with that. I'm going back in the house for the

other can. Yes, I got a second can of pyrodex and dumped it too. Now

we're cookin'.



I stepped back about 15ft and lit the 2 stroke arrow. I drew the nock

to my cheek and took aim. As I released I heard a clunk as the arrow

launched from my bow. In a slow motion time frame, I turned to see my

dad getting out of the truck... OH NOOOOOO! He just got home from work.

So help me God it took 10 minutes for that arrow to go from my bow to

the can. My dad was walking towards me in slow motion with a what the heck look

in his eyes.



I turned back towards my target just in time to see the arrow pierce

the starting fluid can right at the bottom. Right through the main

pile of pyrodex and into the can. OH - LORD.



When the shock wave hit it knocked me off my feet. I don't know if it

was the actual compression wave that threw me back or just reflex jerk

back from 235 decibels of sound. I caught a half millisecond glimpse

of the violence during the initial explosion and I will tell you there

was dust, grass, and bugs all hovering 1ft above the ground as far as

I could see. It was like a little low to the ground layer of dust fog

full of grasshoppers, spiders, and a crawfish or two. The daylight

turned purple. Let me repeat this...



THE DAYLIGHT TURNED PURPLE!



There was a big sweetgum tree out by the gate going into the pasture.

Notice I said "was". That rascal got up and ran off.



So here I am, on the ground blown completely out of my shoes with my

Thundercats T-shirt shredded, my dad is on the other side of the

carport having what I can only assume is a Vietnam flashback: " ECHO

BRAVO CHARLIE YOUR BRINGIN' EM IN TOO CLOSE!! CEASE FIRE DANGIT CEASE FIRE!!!!!

His hat has blown off and is 30 ft. behind him in the driveway. All

windows on the north side of the house are blown out and there is a

slow rolling mushroom cloud about 200 feet over our backyard. There

is a Honda 185s three wheeler parked on the other side of the yard and

the fenders are drooped down and are now touching the tires.



I wish I knew what I said to my dad at this moment. I don't know- I

know I said something. I couldn't hear. I couldn't hear inside my own

head. I don't think he heard me either... not that it would really

matter. I don't remember much from this point on. I said something,

felt a sharp pain, and then woke up later. I felt a sharp pain,

blacked out, woke later.... repeat this process for an hour or so and

you get the idea. I remember at one point my mom had to give me CPR so

dad could beat me some more. Bring him back to life so dad can kill him again.



Thanks mom.



One thing is for sure... I never had to mow around that stump again.

Mom had been griping about that thing for years and dad never did

anything about it. I stepped up to the plate and handled business.



Dad sold his muzzleloaders a week or so later. And I still have some

sort of bone growth abnormality either from the blast or the beating.

Or both.



I guess what I'm trying to say is, get your kids into archery.. Its

good discipline and will teach them skills they can use later on in

life. Something they won't learn in school.
__________________

[Bayrat]

Bill,

A kid, an imagination, and no adult supervision. :D


My older brother used to get me involved in some of his "fun with a flash". He once had the idea to make our own fireworks and launch an ashcan up into the night sky.

Two rubber bands later and the ashcan was firmly in place on the point of an arrow. He lit the fuse as I drew back and let it fly.

The burning fuse made it easy to follow ...right up until a blinding flash. We both got out the word "cool" ... just before we heard the "thunk" of the arrow imbeding itself in the lawn 3 feet from my right foot.

We got so wrappd up in how to do it, and how spectacular it was going to be that we forgot about the old "What goes up must come down" part.

Bayrat.

[TXAnn38]

....Don't drink coffee, Bill, but that was a real Dr. Pepper spitter!

Thanks for making my sides sore from laffin'! :D:D

Ann

[Greywolf]

:D:D:D
I love these nostalgia stories, any one else?

(and to think
all my brother and I did was a few pipebombs once in a while:eek:)

[dave-t.]

A buddy and me once made some fireworks from old perfume bottles and filled a couple CO2 air rifle cartridges. It's a wonder we didn't get killed. We did find a blown out CO2 cartridge burried in a wild cherry tree near where we set one off one time. It ended up being darn near a grenade.


We ran out of fuse material with the glass perfume bottles, and decided to just make a trail of black powder, like the cowboys did, and set 'er off. We didn't want to waste powder, so we left a generous length of powder, a good 12-15" or so, for safety :eek: We lit it and took off running, about three strides into our escape, BOOM! We both looked like we ran backwards through a briar patch. No big major cuts, but a whole lot of smaller ones. That loose powder burns fast.

That was the last time for using metal or glass containers.

[Bayrat]

Don't know about the rest of ya's, but I often wonder how I ever made it past my 18th birthday ?

Teenage boredom + creativity = disaster in the making!

Bayrat

[LampLighter]

We put a fish hook with a spool of sewing thread on one of those U shaped door knockers, and spooled it down the street, in the bushes. We "knocked" with the string. Fellow come to the door looked around and went backin. We knocked as soon as he closed the door again. He come out again and looked around, went back in. We pulled the string again, and he come out. My stomach was hurting from laughing so much. :D

[Altjaeger]

I know of one electrical transformer penetrated side to side by a 1/2" steel ball bearing propelled by a .50black powder cannon.

That story was good enough to cut and paste sending to friends that are not members here who I am sure see at least a little of themselves. :D

[BILL K]

Two bolts, one nut, and some book matches.
Put the nut on the bolt just enough to catch some thread.
Oh, look, it leaves as nice pocket that you could fill with some sort of propellant.
When it's filled screw the other bolt in nice and tight.
I'll bet that if you were to toss that assembly way up in the air something really cool would happen when it came down onto a hard surface like blacktop and compressed a bit more.
Something that might drive one of those bolts right through the door of a '50s vintage car.

[TXAnn38]

Jack used to tell how they would make Coke bottle bombs when they were kids. I think he said they would put lye, baking soda, and a little water in a glass bottle and then tie a balloon on top. The resulting gas would fill the balloon and lift it up in the air--and since what goes up must come down.............

And once, Jack ran out of string for his kite so he got some of his mom's Christmas ribbon and tied it to the end of his regular string. It was fine until his kite went down across the local power plant and knocked the lights off. It seems the ribbon had tinsel in it.

While his explosions didn't involve gunpowder, they did have a nuisance facter. Boys!:eek:

Ann

[Twanger]

Jack used to tell how they would make Coke bottle bombs when they were kids. I think he said they would put lye, baking soda, and a little water in a glass bottle and then tie a balloon on top. The resulting gas would fill the balloon and lift it up in the air--and since what goes up must come down.............

And once, Jack ran out of string for his kite so he got some of his mom's Christmas ribbon and tied it to the end of his regular string. It was fine until his kite went down across the local power plant and knocked the lights off. It seems the ribbon had tinsel in it.

While his explosions didn't involve gunpowder, they did have a nuisance facter. Boys!:eek:

Ann

I flash-burned several square inches of skin off my face and right hand when I accidentally dropped the firing pin on a homemade bomb I was arming while in my room. Also burned a big hole in the carpet and a guitar. I would probably be blind today if I had not been wearing glasses. Thank the Lord for that. We used toilet paper rolls for cases because they didn't fragment like a grenade. We were after a big flash, not so much a big boom.

[BILL K]

Did someone say "Bang"? That's why God made carbide, so boys could make things that go bang!

[Dennis Keith]

We did the match-heads and bolts. Worked our way up to one about an inch and a quarter in diameter. We used to throw them at the brick wall at the end of the "U" that was formed by the two wings of the School. We STOPPED after that last one. No one got hurt, but it sure tears up the brick wall something awful.:eek: