When I was young we had cherry bomb wars.   It was really neat when we had a cherry bomb war at night in the dark.   We used small lengths of rope as lighters.  If you lit the rope and blow out the flame, the coal would remain, and you could use it to light your cherry bomb.   In the pitch dark at night, you would see the glowing end of the ropes as the opposing army tried to sneak up on you.   We also made banana bombs by inserting firecrackers into cut lengths of bananas.   And we made guns by getting a foot-long length metal pipe with a screw-on cap.  We'd cut a slot in the screw-end of the pipe for the fuse and insert whatever projectile would fit.   We didn't shoot those at anyone, though.   We weren't that stupid.  

 

There was a place on 103rd St that would sell illegal fireworks: firecrackers and cherry bombs.  It was like a roadside stand.  

 

When I was 12 years old I had a friend across the street who could make his own gunpowder.  We blew up a lot of stuff around the neighborhood.  Nothing significant or valuable, of course.  We didn't want to get into trouble. 

 

We also did this: http://www.estesrockets.com/

 

The rocket engines had a backcharge that would go off in order to push out the parachute.   So instead of packing a parachute, we packed a whole bunch of gunpowder and used the backcharge to set it off.   We hit the neighbor's house with one by accident.  Boom!   We scattered like rats. 

 

That was a long long time ago.   

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