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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Snowshoe who wrote (149262)	11/30/2005 4:34:46 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793957

Life seems to run in parallel around the world, without any communication. Things are just obvious to do, given the cultural contexts and technologies of the time. Of course in NZ we were doing all that with caps [hitting with stones etc]. Plus IEDs. I was in a "Bomb Club" with my 8 year older brother. I put up the money, he put up the brains and we'd make match-head bombs with .22 and .303 cartridges packed with match heads. He knew how to do it and I'd earned money from various enterprises such as collecting bottles for recycling. A friend found some cordite at a quarry [about a kg of it] and we'd burn it one particle at a time [or maybe 5] with a little poof. He got carried away and burned about a tablespoon all at once. I thought he was nuts [he was] and I got well clear. He lit it with a match directly onto the little stack and he disappeared in a cloud of smoke and flame. No burns, though singed. He came staggering out from the cloud, somewhat shocked and surprised and chastened. I made a cracker gun, which fired marbles. I did a test firing [with the barrel bound with wire so it wouldn't burst and shrapnel me - I figured it would split and leak rather than shrapnel. I fired it only twice. The first firing was straight up so I could see how high it went. I didn't see anything. So I put a nail box [half inch thick wood] about 2 metres in front of it and let rip. I heard the marble go through the box and a fraction of a second later really quickly through the hedge 30 metres away. I never fired it again as I realized it was much too dangerous to have marbles moving around that fast. I didn't want to kill somebody. I'd made it as a triple barrel job, for mass-firing. Never did that. Life is a pale imitation of the real thing these days. In honour of the good old days, I have 20 litres of methanol which I get out at night for New Year, Guy Fawkes night or birthdays and have a little conflagration in the street or driveway or terrace. The kids love it. The flame is quite benign and fun. Mqurice