I’m an Idiot.

Don't play with gasoline near an open flame.      that is all.

Here's your source for all of your explosives:

Ahh bottle rockets.  When I was in Jr. High, my best friend and I got bored, which is a dangerous condition for teenagers.  We started taping two bottle rockets together, one facing up, the other facing down.  We would light the fuse on the one pointing up, which would launch the two rockets into the air.  The sparks from the one pointing up would light the one pointing down, which would accelerate the whole contraption back at the idiot who launched it, generating a hilarious game that was basically playing dodgeball with yourself.  ("If you can dodge a wrench" comes to mind)  This was stupid fun for a few minutes until my friend picked out one for the "downward facing rocket" which, instead of exploding, shot out a shower of sparks . . . onto the dry grass . . . starting a grass fire. 

As long as I live, I'll never forget standing there like an idiot on my friends driveway while the fire department came rolling down the road, lights and sirens on, followed by every kid in the neighborhood on their bikes.

My more recent "I'm an idiot" story involved a cannon, black powder and a golf ball.  You do the math.

In reply to kazoospec :

MATH!!!!!!!!! YOU'RE GOING TO LEAVE THAT JUST LAYING THERE? DETAILS!

All your stories that involve fireworks start with “I was a teenager....”

Mine started with “I’m 55 years old......”

If you buy one of the commercially available fireworks mortar sets and lay it on its side in the middle of a mountain bike trail, it looks like Apocalypse Now when the shell skips down the trail and goes off in the dusk. Also, running down a trail and stomping out a flaming forest while wearing cycling shoes and spandex is difficult.  And that wasn't all that long ago..

Datsun310Guy said:

All your stories that involve fireworks start with “I was a teenager....”

Mine started with “I’m 55 years old......”

I was in my late 30s when I was building them. When I was a teen, I was too busy shooting them at other people to build them. 

My dad and his friends, all around 48-55 at the time were the ones bankrolling my teenage fireworks obsession. 

Maybe you're not quite the idiot they were.