You know you are getting old when:

[Fading Fast]

Heh. I do remember unfurling a roll of caps on the concrete steps and popping them with my Dad's hammer. It was very satisfying. But I wasn't part of a gang. I do love the smell of the caps' powder though. I actually have 3 different toys from the local toy store (yes, we have a dedicated toy store here) and take them out occasionally to fire them off and breath deep. Like the smell of Play-Do, it immediately takes me back to my 10 year old feisty self and that's just necessary sometimes.

As for being the age of your grandmother when born, well, that's a sobering thought. I'm sure I've actually surpassed that. But we birthed babies young in our tribe.

Yes, the smell of the cap's powder is good and redolent.

In addition to the caps on the thin paper that you could either use in the gun or, as you noted, hit with a hammer, I also remember a kid in the neighborhood having a version of the cap gun that used a plastic ring of caps (that I know now, not then, looked like a speed loader) and the gun looked like the snub nosed ones that the detectives used to use in the TV shows in the '60s (I don't know anything about guns, so that's what I got). Does anyone remember that?

As to aligning your life with where your parents or grandparents were at your age - I'm 50 and my Dad passed away at 66, so I get a little nervous every time I think about it.

 

[dh66]

Went through a few of those plastic rings of caps, as well as many a roll of the paper kind.

I also remember these little bombs that you put a cap in the end of and dropped on the sidewalk.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My brother had one of those things. He liked to throw it at me even when there weren't caps in it.

His favorite stunt, though, was to carefully peel caps and firecrackers apart and collect the powder in a tin can. He'd wrap it up in duct tape. stick a piece of model-rocket wick inside for a fuse, bury it in a hole in the back yard, put army men all over the mound, and then blow it up.

The fire chief lived up behind us. We got phone calls.

 

[Bushman]

My brother had one of those things. He liked to throw it at me even when there weren't caps in it.

His favorite stunt, though, was to carefully peel caps and firecrackers apart and collect the powder in a tin can. He'd wrap it up in duct tape. stick a piece of model-rocket wick inside for a fuse, bury it in a hole in the back yard, put army men all over the mound, and then blow it up.

The fire chief lived up behind us. We got phone calls.

Man, that sounds like good fun. Good thing the fire chief didn't live near us, they'd have thought we were going to blow up the neighborhood. We used to have the town cops sitting in their cars, at the county line (which was also the property line), watching the show.

 

[jamespowers]

My daddy gave me this, it was about $5 which was a lot of money.
I loved the smell of the cap powder. Nowadays these go for $$$$$

But I got the most joy making slingshots out of tree branches &
discarded tire tubes.

You know you are getting old when you made your own toys...

Btw:
I enjoy the game of tennis for the fast pace & the shot making
I can produce.

When I played competitive tournaments & did very well, I learned early on to
never go on the court wanting to beat my opponent. I never thought of what he
would do before or after the shot.
I would focus only on the ball as it came to me & made it a point to get it back.
I enjoy the selection of the shot I would make with my racket & the sound of the ball
as it hit the strings. I looked forward for the ball to come back & in a way was disappointed
when the ball would either hit the net or go out. But winning the point made up for it.

I had a few cap guns and the holsters to match. One cap gun wasn't good enough. You had to wear them in pairs like Gene, Roy and Tom.

I just enjoy playing golf. It is like going into a park where they don't allow hippies and bums to loiter around and ruin the atmosphere.

 

[jamespowers]

Yes, the smell of the cap's powder is good and redolent.

In addition to the caps on the thin paper that you could either use in the gun or, as you noted, hit with a hammer, I also remember a kid in the neighborhood having a version of the cap gun that used a plastic ring of caps (that I know now, not then, looked like a speed loader) and the gun looked like the snub nosed ones that the detectives used to use in the TV shows in the '60s (I don't know anything about guns, so that's what I got). Does anyone remember that?

As to aligning your life with where your parents or grandparents were at your age - I'm 50 and my Dad passed away at 66, so I get a little nervous every time I think about it.

The plastic ring of caps was much more efficient and they all went off. I liked those too.

 

[jamespowers]

Went through a few of those plastic rings of caps, as well as many a roll of the paper kind.

I also remember these little bombs that you put a cap in the end of and dropped on the sidewalk.

Those went off better when you really got them up in the air good.

 

[2jakes]

Caps took forever to fill a tin can. I used Black Cat fire crackers.
My sisters mostly played with these :

 

[2jakes]

I had a few cap guns and the holsters to match. One cap gun wasn't good enough. You had to wear them in pairs like Gene, Roy and Tom.

I just enjoy playing golf. It is like going into a park where they don't allow hippies and bums to loiter around and ruin the atmosphere.

I haven't seen a hippie in years. The last time was @ Haight/Ashbury in San Francisco
when I was in the military @ Castle AFB. The homeless usually hang around downtown near the blood bank.
I never see them on the tennis courts or public parks .

 

[Stearmen]

My brother had one of those things. He liked to throw it at me even when there weren't caps in it.

His favorite stunt, though, was to carefully peel caps and firecrackers apart and collect the powder in a tin can. He'd wrap it up in duct tape. stick a piece of model-rocket wick inside for a fuse, bury it in a hole in the back yard, put army men all over the mound, and then blow it up.

The fire chief lived up behind us. We got phone calls.

We would do that with caps to. We also liked to throw some string over the power line coming into the house. Then we would tie a model airplane to it, then one kid would light the fuse and the other would run with the string and hoist the plane into the air. Lots of fun when it blew up. Of course, the models were very cheap back then. Now days, the authorities would probably make the kids parent take him to a psychiatrist!

 

[GHT]

Caps took forever to fill a tin can. I used Black Cat fire crackers.

Post war Europe took a long time to recover from the shattered ruins of all that bombing. For twenty years or more we still had, what we refered to as bombsites. These were areas for future development that had been left grassed over to reduce the eyesore. One such area, near my home then home, had lots of small hills and dips, a great place for offroad racing on bicycles, long before the track bikes were sold. On our track was the remains of a fallen tree, an obstacle that we decided to get rid of. Every November, in the UK, we commemorate Guy Fawkes night, when said villain, in 1605, tried to blow up Parliament.

In the run up to this date, shops sold fireworks, one of the most favoured firework was what we termed: The penny banger.

This firework was very popular with small boys, and this and other small boys bought copious amounts of them. Our idea to get rid of that fallen tree was to blow it up.

We got one of those syrup cans, the sort that you have a lid that has to be prised off, we then pulled the fuses out of the fireworks and emptied the powder into the can, until it was full. Then we forced the lid on, wrapped the whole lot in gaffer tape so that the lid wouldn't blow straight off, before finally inserting one of the fuses.

It was obvious to even small boys that we had to be a healthy distance from this device when it went off, so we made a gunpowder trail up to the fuse's touchpaper. With much anticipation, a group of small boys watched as the powder burned all the way to the bomb. The blue touchpaper caught alight and the fuse started to fizz.

The resulting bang blew windows out from a nearby factory and the tree was matchwood. It was probably a minute or two before we heard the first sirens. A dozen boys were rounded up, taken to the police station, asked about the why's and wherefore's of our activity and then, along with our parents, given a severe reprimand by a senior police officer.

My father told me later, that he was grateful that we all survived unscathed, he was impressed that we had kept a distance, but made me vow never to play with fireworks again. He never beat me, not for the firework fiasco, or ever. But he could reduce me with one of his stares. He did say that he and others thought that an undetected WW2 bomb had gone off.

 

[HudsonHawk]

We would do that with caps to. We also liked to throw some string over the power line coming into the house. Then we would tie a model airplane to it, then one kid would light the fuse and the other would run with the string and hoist the plane into the air. Lots of fun when it blew up. Of course, the models were very cheap back then. Now days, the authorities would probably make the kids parent take him to a psychiatrist!

Remember those plastic eggs in which panties hose came? We used to cut the heads off of matches and stuff them in the egg and tape it up. You can imagine what happened next.

 

[sheeplady]

Post war Europe took a long time to recover from the shattered ruins of all that bombing. For twenty years or more we still had, what we refered to as bombsites. These were areas for future development that had been left grassed over to reduce the eyesore. One such area, near my home then home, had lots of small hills and dips, a great place for offroad racing on bicycles, long before the track bikes were sold. On our track was the remains of a fallen tree, an obstacle that we decided to get rid of. Every November, in the UK, we commemorate Guy Fawkes night, when said villain, in 1605, tried to blow up Parliament.

In the run up to this date, shops sold fireworks, one of the most favoured firework was what we termed: The penny banger.
View attachment 23841
This firework was very popular with small boys, and this and other small boys bought copious amounts of them. Our idea to get rid of that fallen tree was to blow it up.

We got one of those syrup cans, the sort that you have a lid that has to be prised off, we then pulled the fuses out of the fireworks and emptied the powder into the can, until it was full. Then we forced the lid on, wrapped the whole lot in gaffer tape so that the lid wouldn't blow straight off, before finally inserting one of the fuses.

It was obvious to even small boys that we had to be a healthy distance from this device when it went off, so we made a gunpowder trail up to the fuse's touchpaper. With much anticipation, a group of small boys watched as the powder burned all the way to the bomb. The blue touchpaper caught alight and the fuse started to fizz.

The resulting bang blew windows out from a nearby factory and the tree was matchwood. It was probably a minute or two before we heard the first sirens. A dozen boys were rounded up, taken to the police station, asked about the why's and wherefore's of our activity and then, along with our parents, given a severe reprimand by a senior police officer.

My father told me later, that he was grateful that we all survived unscathed, he was impressed that we had kept a distance, but made me vow never to play with fireworks again. He never beat me, not for the firework fiasco, or ever. But he could reduce me with one of his stares. He did say that he and others thought that an undetected WW2 bomb had gone off.

Oh, my god, that story nearly gave me a heart attack. Little kids think of some crazy stuff. The worst thing I ever did as a kid was ride my bicycle on the train track rails and try to ride it down the side of the filled-in trestle with my friends. The worst that ever happened is my best friend's kid brother's arm broke during a particularly bad ride one day.

I'm not surprised they thought it was an undetected bomb, given the fact they are still finding them to this day.

 

[Redshoes51]

I once tackled and strangled a kid who swung a baseball bat at my cat -- the kid's face was purple and the eyes were popping out of his head before I got pulled off. But nobody ever went near my cat again.

I tell my students about having to read "The Prince"... by Niccolo Machiavelli... and in giving a brief summary of what the book was about... 'some times you have to kill somebody just to keep control of Society'... (trust me, totally said in jest..)

Your event above is a great example...

~shoes~

 

[Redshoes51]

You know you're getting old when you're the same age your grandmother was when you were born.

This reminds me of a recent conversation with my son... we were looking at photos... and I made the comment to him... that I was the age he is now when he was born. He told me that at the rate things are going for him, he will be the age I am now when he has his first child...

HAH!!!

My daddy gave me this, it was about $5 which was a lot of money.
I loved the smell of the cap powder. Nowadays these go for $$$$$

I had a Fanner~50... wish I had it now...

~shoes~

 

[jamespowers]

I haven't seen a hippie in years. The last time was @ Haight/Ashbury in San Francisco
when I was in the military @ Castle AFB. The homeless usually hang around downtown near the blood bank.
I never see them on the tennis courts or public parks .

I can send you a container full of them if you like. They are here and I see the dang skunks every day.

 

[2jakes]

I can send you a container full of them if you like. They are here and I see the dang skunks every day.

Give me a nanosecond to think about your offer...:decision:

Thanks...but I'll pass...you can keep them all...

 

[Stearmen]

I can send you a container full of them if you like. They are here and I see the dang skunks every day.

If you think they smell bad now, wait until I put "return to sender" on the box!

 

[2jakes]

If you think they smell bad now, wait until I put "return to sender" on the box!

I took the liberty of adding holes to reduce the stench...

 

[Zombie_61]

I took the liberty of adding holes to reduce the stench...

If you did, it would look more like this:

lol