A discussion this weekend was echoed by one I had this morning with reader Matt K about the Iggulden brothers’ Dangerous Book for Boys: where have all the childhood explosions gone?
When we were young, M-80s—tauted, perhaps apocryphally, as having the power of a “quarter stick of dynamite”—were already long gone, blown off the fireworks stand like so many fleshy digits. Instead our battles were fought primarily with bottle rockets and Black Cats, with a few Roman candles throw in for color.
Our most effective technique: squishing a handful of dense, wet mud around a firecracker, letting it dry enough that it would stay together when lobbed, to form dirt grenades. We took special care not to have any pebbles in the mud; catching a half-facefull of stinging mud was punishment enough.
And of course, the ultimate insult was to shoot a bottle rocket at someone else’s chest, timed so that the final explosion occurred right under their face with a wallop. One of those was usually enough to cause a soldier from the opposing army to walk off the field of battle sobbing.
Now I understand that people don’t want their kids to lose an eye or come inside with a fistful of blood blisters, but surely there are ways to have a healthy fireworks war without all the risk of injury. I’m thinking paintball helmets or at least goggles.
14 Responses to “Are Safe Fireworks Fights Possible?”
- 1 Trackback on Jun 13th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Dude, you figure it out and I’m down for some melee.
seems like you would need some sort of hand protection for the shooter. not that any of this has stopped my friends and i from doing it anyway. i have the scar on my arm to prove it.
in my irresponsible youth, we used to soak our T-shirts in water, then have roman candle fights.
of course, this was extremely stupid and i don’t recommend it. eye protection should be worn.
when I was young and stupider, we’d save our firework fights for snow days, you were already wearing a heavy coat/pants, hats and gloves, so you had a good amount of protection. then we’d take toy guns and drill out the red thing that says I’m not a gun in the barrel, load a bottle rocket in it and you can aim somewhat effectively.
somehow I still have all my fingers….
we used to have roman candle/penny rocket/water dynamite wars every year and our parents told us stories of doing the same (our mother even drove to mississippi one year to get us penny rockets, since they are illegal in louisiana). this came to an end when a friend of ours caught a firework in a pocket full of fireworks. the chain reaction was unbelievable it lasted for a good 40 seconds of him screaming, until he got his pants off.
My older brother and I not only had the aforementioned firework battles (usually involving little bottle rockets, the kind that come in the cheap 50 packs) we also had at least one misadventure that involved duct-taping my mom’s cookie sheets to ourselves and shooting at each other with our BB guns. No harm came to either of us from the BB’s or the fireworks, but we each got a bruising from mom’s yardstick that day, let me tell you. Should worn eye protection, sure, but her problem was with all the little dents we put in her sheet pans.
Possible? Yes. Not nearly as satisfying though. Burned off half the hair on my head when a large bottle rocket went astray. Still makes me laugh.
Quarter-sticks were far more powerful than M-80s. My older brother used to get ahold of stuff like this and detonate it. An M-80 was loud, but a quarter-stick on the ground could make the ground shake. Bury one and you could kick up a significant amount of dirt, like a little artillery shell going off.
I mean … uhm …. uh … safety first, kids!
We lived out in the country and would have a ball when one of us would find a forgotten stash of bottle rockets.
One guys dad had some soft leed piping around, about 1/4-3/8 stuff (he was a pack rat and had some of everything).
We would bend a U shape in one end and drop all of the bottle rocket but the fuze down the tube. Light the fuse and as it burnt down you hold the “gun” straight up. When the fuse burnt enough the rocket fell into the tube and it was time to point and shoot. You always had a second or two to aim. Bottle rocket went out the longer top hole and the flames/sparks went out the bottom of the handle, blowing away from the shooter.
Damn that was fun stuff. Our biggest fear was setting teh woods on fire that we were playing in. we “tried” to wait till just after rainy days.
Fireworks were never really popular where I’m from, at least not overly accessable, until recent years. Model Rocket kits were another story. We’re pack them full of gasoline soaked rags and launch them… good times :) hardly ever came close to burning someones house down!
Then there was the time we were readying for a launch, and one of the guys noticed a loose tain fin… went to investigate, and someone hit the igniter! I learned something that day… model rockets do NOT fly up when they are short a stabalizer. They do on the other hand take a roller coaster-esque path around the yard while you and your friends dive for your lives :)
J.
so its all a bout the roman candles. my friends and i would get the 10 ball ones, and go out in the field and run around ala dragonball z and shoot at each other. the great thing about the roman candles is that they bounce right off of you and dont even burn your shirt, they are also slow enough to give you time to dodge and or protect your face
We used M80 equivalent charges and packed them in wet clay. This way you could throw it towards a bus or other moving vehicles and it would stick to the window. Upon explosion it creates shock and awe, but not break the glass. Very effective. Our “explosives dealer” in the Alsatian town of St. Louis also had a variant called the “Pirate” which had a sulfur based ignition and was waterproof. Attached to a stone it was possible to create Hollywood style water explosions. Highly enjoyed during bible school trips in the narrow waterways of Venice. Kaboom - splash - porca miseria!
can you shoot artillery shells at someone…for instance make a (rocket) launcher outa pvc pipe. were all crazy were im from and im sure no one would mind having a sizable bruise just as long as we can keep our bodyparts