So, who else's family got to have dynamite for the fourth of July?

[Rabrrrrrr]

We always did. We also had cannisters of blackpowder that we used rather, um, well, explosively.

Yeah, farmer family.

And somewhat socially, uh, off.

Hella fun, though!!

I loved talking to my friends after the fourth. "So, Rabrrrrrr, I got hold of some firecrackers for the fourth! What did you get? (ha ha haha)"

"Oh, we had dynamite and cans of blackpowder and about 4,000 bottle rockets and a string of 5,000 firecrackers that my cousins brought from South Dakota. Yeah, we had the old farmhouse actually shaking from the explosions."

[Left Is Write]

1. Um, we had rolls of caps my dad let us hammer on the driveway.

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. (bang) (bang) (bang) (bang) from the Left is Write house

BOOOOOOOOM BOOOOOOOOOOMBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM QUAKE QUAKE SHAKE SHAKE QUAKE QUAKE BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM RRUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMBBBBLLLLLLEEEEEE (from the Rabrrrrrr farm)

Sometimes we'd go set off the explosives on the ridge overlooking the valley. Man, the echos coming back from miles away - priceless.

[LeftyMom]

3. Sounds like our celebrations

We only lit the neighbor's house on fire once. :shrug:

My old man got the stuff mailed in from West Virginia, where we live sparklers are illegal.

[Bouncy Ball]

4. When I met Mr. Bouncy

he was in the Army, young, and stupid.

So he'd bring me and my college roommates those "practice" grenades filled with sand and whatever makes it explode.

Oh my God.

He wasn't welcome at my apartment complex for a while. Both the management and every girl living there hated him. I was embarrassed.

The guys loved it, though. Kept asking when he'd come back for a visit. Requested more "sand grenades." It wasn't pretty.

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. My cousin used to bring back the smoke cannisters they used in

their simulated war games. Totally illegal of him to do that, but they were fun - they'd cover practically the whole acreage of the farm!

Pooosh......FSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Hilarious!

[liberal N proud]

5. Dynamite?

Do you live in the south?
Sounds like something that I have heard of from some southern people I knew!

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. No, I grew up in Wisconsin

Farmer families, way up in the country, not a lot of law enforcement, and waht there was didn't really care so much about something as boring (from a legal standpoint) as a bunch of boys playing with dynamite. I mean, "blowing stumps". Since that'swhat my uncle always had to say when buying the dynamite.

:-)

Nowadays we can't, because the damn gummint counts every stick they hand out, they know exactly how much it should take to blow a stump, and you have to bring any leftovers.

bunch of horseshit, if you ask me.

[MuseRider]

6. My husband used to make

M80's, the real big ones. We would throw them in the pool and send a spray up 20 feet or throw them into the big culvert at the end of the driveway and blow all the animal skeletons out. You can also send a big, metal bowl up high enough you can't see it. Damn, it isn't a good idea to order black flake over the internet anymore. I miss them, the entire neighborhood would cringe. Our friends roasted a pig and used one to blow the head into tiny, unrecognizable pieces. Yes, we are in the country.

[fluffernutter]

9. my brother used to make pipe bombs that did the same thing

crazy fool. my mom had a wedding held at her house on the waterfront and there was my brother and some other guys were setting these stupid bombs off afterward like fireworks. the flagpole was blown to smithereens. *KABOOM!*

we also lived near an Indian reservation, and the stuff they sell there is nothing like the tame things that you can buy anywhere else.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. KABOOOM!!

Where's the earth shattering kaboom?

[fluffernutter]

11. you know there was one. i think all the guests had to change their shorts

after they dropped their crystal champagne glasses and fine china plates filled with peeled shrimp ;) it was kinda hilarious, but my mother failed to see the humor.

[HumblePiRSquared]

12. No dynamite but lots of gas

There's nothing like filling a weather balloon with the Stoichiometry mixture of common welding torch gas O2 and C2H2, poking a hole in it with a tracer round from a 1/2 mile away. BOOM!, like that.

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. I imagine that WOULD go up nicely, if properly lit

Good thing the tracer lit it! Otherwise, it would have been kinda boring...

That's a pretty explosive mixture.

Half a mile away?

Who was the insanely expert marksman? That's pretty damned good - unbelievable, almost - hitting a floating weather balloon from 800+ meters.

I've known some pretty goddamn good shots in my life, but 800 meters? That's incredible.

[HumblePiRSquared]

14. No floating

O2 and Acetylene is heavier than air and the weather balloon was 30ft x 15ft is size on the ground. A cherry shot and louder than anything you will ever hear and survive.

If the tracer did not function the backup was a flaming arrow with an arc to fit.

[Rabrrrrrr]

16. Oooh, a flaming arrow would have been classically elegant!

That's a big ballon. I bet you had quite a fireball - and quite a KABOOM - with that one!

[Bigmack]

15. 9-11 pretty well killed...

.. the private use of explosives in my state.

I had some EOD training and held a permit to buy and a Blaster's license for years.... stumps, rocks, etc.

Favorite homemade boom?... small wooden raft, 5 gallon can of gas on it, 3 cans of Red Devil chimney cleaner (for color) 10 sticks of ditching dynamite, an EBC, and 100' of extension cord out to the raft.

Everybody was setting off fireworks around the lake, and when that sucker went off... the whole lake quieted.