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Wow….

Did you ever fill a model airplane with a couple of tubes of airplane glue, strap an Estes rocket engine to the back, and then light the engine?

The model airplane would shoot wildly across the ground, and then the parachute charge would ignite the whole thing in a great big ball of fire.

Talk about pyronostalgia!

Ok, now I never did that actual act, however, we did do something fairly similar. I remember when I was younger (say 12 years old?), myself and a friend of mine, occasionally went out to his grandparents lake home, where we were left to amuse ourselves. Amongst other activities that the Fifth Amendment suggests I not mention, we did partake in the nautical equivalent.

His mother was a bit of an antique collector, he\’d get dragged along quite often. On the plus side, she often let him buy old plastic models of ships and such. We\’d then spend a great deal of time taking them apart and filling them with highly flammable materials and strategically placed fireworks, then putting them back together. When night came they\’d be cast afloat…after lighting the necessary fuses.

The end result being and entire fleet of ships in various stages of pyrotechnics floating across the lake*. You could almost see the U-Boat sulking off, content in it\’s prize.

* It now occurs to my (barely) adult mind that it\’s surprising no ACTUAL boats came upon our fleet. Although there was seldom boat traffic on this very very shallow lake, and as a result few waves to topple our very top heavy creations.

NOTE : Yeah, I was burning plastic…contributing to global warming. I know, the entire ecosystem was thrown out of wack. Go suck tofu.