45 Years Ago This Week

[granger]

My stepdad was renowned for always telling us to up it a level on the engines, which meant cutting the tubes and adding tape. The goal at the end of the day was to turn them into flying flames. No chute paper and add anything that would cause more fire.

 

[CRSARM]

I did not get into the rockets until I was a freshman at Wayland Baptist in Plainview. I lived with my brother and his wife that semester. We decided to try the rockets and bought a kit with the launcher and everything. It was a rainy day when we were ready to launch but we were ready to go. The rocket went straight up, the chute did not deploy, he rocket came straight down nose first into a mud puddle right next to the launcher.

We advanced a lot after that point even getting to the point of buying tubes and the light weight wood, don't remember what it is called, and building them from our own designs. My brother had a house right down the street from where the Wal-Mart distribution center is now. We would get 10 to 15 ready to launch, get the neighbor kids all ready and go out to launch. two of the boys had dirt bikes and they would retrieve them for us. It was the hit of the neighborhood.

Kind of funny this would come up now, I have been looking at the rockets and thinking about getting back into them with my 16 year old son. I would love for us to have as much fun as me and my brother did but I am not sure how he would react to it, after all it is not a video game. LOL

Space, the final frontier. I have been hooked from day one. I remember playing sick and skipping school so I could watch the TEST landing of the shuttle. I tell that to people now and they ask me why? I said I just loved anything to do with space.

I have no memory of the moon landing as I was only 2 when it happened but I have watched the videos so many times. I know, they were made on that stage. LOL

I used to dream of going out into space someday, maybe on a five year mission to explore strange new places, to go where no MAN (one) has gone before. LOL

Thanks for bringing a lot of memories back up, it feels good.

Andy

 

[Old Bearkat]

I used alcohol for my tennis ball cannon.

Acetylene for the win!! My pops learned me that one.

I did the model rockets as a kid. Never really got into the multi stage stuff though. My dads first attempt at a multi stage didn't go very well. First stage went off as it should, next two not so much. I think all we may have salvaged from that one was the nose cone.

Big Bertha is resting peacefully in my closet. I bet she would go off without a hitch right now.

A naked engine makes a niiiiice chaser also. used to have a nasty name for that prank

Multi staging is my middle name. In fact, I have a 3 1/2 stage rocket I fire when the winds atop are relatively calm. I have not been able to get a closed track for altitude, but I have calculated that it will hit 4000 ft easily. Probably more like 3500 in reality though.

4 strap-on boosters using C6-0's around the core with a D12-0/D12-0/D12-7. I only fire this one when I have enough kids to help chase down all the parts, as I need to watch the upper stage to find it later. Estes has started production of black powder E and F engines that I hope to have time to build a couple of rockets to test out this summer.

 

[Old Bearkat]

Andy, the light weight wood is balsa. I also use basswood. I have sheets of both in my closet at home. Had to put it there to keep the furballs, feline and canine from chewing on them.

 

[Old Bearkat]

My stepdad was renowned for always telling us to up it a level on the engines, which meant cutting the tubes and adding tape. The goal at the end of the day was to turn them into flying flames. No chute paper and add anything that would cause more fire.

Sounds like he was a closet pyro........

 

[oldfat&bald]

Acetylene will float a plastic trash bag. You can make a heck of a fire ball if you got a long enough "fuse."

Our old AG teacher chewed out pretty good for that. Them he told is he thought it was cool.

 

[Old Bearkat]

Acetylene will float a plastic trash bag. You can make a heck of a fire ball if you got a long enough "fuse."

Our old AG teacher chewed out pretty good for that. Them he told is he thought it was cool.

Been there, done that. Used a remote control rigged to set off a model rocket ingitor.....

 

[oldfat&bald]

Acetylene will float a plastic trash bag. You can make a heck of a fire ball if you got a long enough "fuse."

Our old AG teacher chewed out pretty good for that. Them he told is he thought it was cool.

Been there, done that. Used a remote control rigged to set off a model rocket ingitor.....

We weren't that high tech. We used a long string of paper towels.

 

[Old Bearkat]

Acetylene will float a plastic trash bag. You can make a heck of a fire ball if you got a long enough "fuse."

Our old AG teacher chewed out pretty good for that. Them he told is he thought it was cool.

Been there, done that. Used a remote control rigged to set off a model rocket ingitor.....

We weren't that high tech. We used a long string of paper towels.

Well, we were just a bunch of engineering students. We HAD to make it more complicated.........

 

[SiXmAnMaDnEsS]

When I was little my dad loaded shotgun shells. I learned how and just left the wad in, no bb shot. Would shoot my sister with them at range, as well as scare her.

Dad found out, I didn't know he did. One day in the barn, I hear him pump a shell in. Expecting a coon or skunk, I turned around. He was pointing AT ME. Needless to say I began sobbing, running, begging, everything. Then BOOM!!! I felt something hit me, and I hit the dirt, expecting blood, organs exposed, chipped bone, etc. I was screaming. Dad was laughing.

When I looked down, I had a red spot on stomach. And a plastic wad at my feet.

"Don't shoot your sister anymore. Because I don't want to have to put ya down next time." He said with laughter.

Now that was parenting.

 

[Old Bearkat]

When I was little my dad loaded shotgun shells. I learned how and just left the wad in, no bb shot. Would shoot my sister with them at range, as well as scare her.

Dad found out, I didn't know he did. One day in the barn, I hear him pump a shell in. Expecting a coon or skunk, I turned around. He was pointing AT ME. Needless to say I began sobbing, running, begging, everything. Then BOOM!!! I felt something hit me, and I hit the dirt, expecting blood, organs exposed, chipped bone, etc. I was screaming. Dad was laughing.

When I looked down, I had a red spot on stomach. And a plastic wad at my feet.

"Don't shoot your sister anymore. Because I don't want to have to put ya down next time." He said with laughter.

Now that was parenting.

And would get him 10-20 if it happened now and CPS found out about it.........

 

[smokeyjoe53]

The highway department kept a gravel dump down the road from us when I was a kid. My dad would load the 4 of us kids in the PU and drive down to it every Christmas Eve. We would look for reindeer & sleigh tracks. One year he went out to start the truck to warm it up and we heard a shot. We ran out and there was dad with his old JC Higgins 12 gauge goose gun, looking up, shaking his fist and saying " I finally got the SOB". We were a little upset...........

 

[SiXmAnMaDnEsS]

I do have to say, even with all the changes, my grandson graduates this year and experienced what life was like when we were kids. I was bringing a horse to my son years back, and I see my little grandson trottin up the dirt road to the house with a.22 in his arms, and a prairie dog in the other. He was about 6. I pulled over and I quote him "Dad dropped me off at the prairie dog town, but I guess he forgot me. I shot all my shells. I grabbed this one because I wanted to show him I can shoot without him there better than I can with him watchin!". I laughed, and told him to jump in the puck up, but I reconsidered. I unloaded the horse and threw him up there, told him to ride it bareback to the house. I pulled into the house, talked to my son a bit, and then here came the little one on the horse. Gun in hand, but no prairie dog anymore. When he rode to us, riding like he was a top hand, I asked him where the prairie dog went.

"I didn't need to show dad anymore. You can shoot better than him, so I thought it was good enough you saw him."

 

[Old Bearkat]

The highway department kept a gravel dump down the road from us when I was a kid. My dad would load the 4 of us kids in the PU and drive down to it every Christmas Eve. We would look for reindeer & sleigh tracks. One year he went out to start the truck to warm it up and we heard a shot. We ran out and there was dad with his old JC Higgins 12 gauge goose gun, looking up, shaking his fist and saying " I finally got the SOB". We were a little upset...........

An oldie, but goodie.

 

[smokeyjoe53]

I've heard that joke since but that really did happen.......... You needed to know my dad. He once doctored some milkshakes with ex lax for the girls in his office who were always wanting him to get them something from the drugstore soda fountain....... They didn't ask anymore......

 

[Old Bearkat]

An engineer I worked with at Comanche peak back in the mid 80's did something like that to a bunch of secretaries who decorated his desk with the paper hole reinforcer stickers. He put some kidney medicine he was taking into a batch of cookies that turned their pee a bright green, scaring the beejesus out of them.

He almost got fired over that incident.