Survival II

"Montblack" wrote

As kids, we would wait for a calm dark night to go out into the street
with our "farmer matches" and a straw. We'd "shoot" the matches out the
straw, up into the still night air, then wait to see where they landed.
Hours of fun. Pops would come out, shoot up a few himself, say, "neat -
make sure you watch out for cars," and return inside ...leaving us kids
alone outside, to play with matches. :-)

We found that if you wrapped aluminum foil over the tip, (broke off most of
the wood first) then shaped the aluminum over the back a little like a
rocket nozzle, you could shoot them a good distance. Just need heat on the
tip to get it started.
--
Jim in NC

On Thu, 8 Jun 2006 15:19:44 -0400, "Morgans" wrote:


"Montblack" wrote

As kids, we would wait for a calm dark night to go out into the street
with our "farmer matches" and a straw. We'd "shoot" the matches out the
straw, up into the still night air, then wait to see where they landed.
Hours of fun. Pops would come out, shoot up a few himself, say, "neat -
make sure you watch out for cars," and return inside ...leaving us kids
alone outside, to play with matches. :-)

We found that if you wrapped aluminum foil over the tip, (broke off most of
the wood first) then shaped the aluminum over the back a little like a
rocket nozzle, you could shoot them a good distance. Just need heat on the
tip to get it started.

We used to disassemble a wooden clothespin, turn the two pieces of wood
back-to-back, and slip the steel spring over them with one "arm" inside. You
could then cock the spring and slip a farmer match between the jaws. The coil
spring was a natural trigger, and when you pulled it, the contrivance
simultaneously launched the match while igniting it.

Used to ride our bicycles in dogfights shooting at each other....

Ron Wanttaja

("Ron Wanttaja" wrote)
The coil spring was a natural trigger, and when you pulled it, the
contrivance simultaneously launched the match while igniting it.

Used to ride our bicycles in dogfights shooting at each other....


Hey, you're the one who introduced clothespins...!!

I'd take you on with my rubber binder clothespin fly-shooter pistol. Yes,
using the"good" red rubber binders from the Butcher Shop!

"Another dud farmers match from Ron's gun. Ooh, I'm so scared."

Aim ......"Missed!"
Pedaling ..."Reload binder gun."
Pedaling ..."Aim."
Pedaling ..."Fire!"

"Thwat!"

"That's gotta hurt."


Mont-Black-Phantom
"Although some minor variants now compete in frequency, on the whole
Minnesota speech features such dominant Northern terms as andirons, pail,
mouth organ (harmonica), comforter (tied and filled bedcover), wishbone,
clingstone peach, sweet corn, angleworm (earthworm), darning needle or
mosquito hawk (dragonfly), and sick to the stomach. Minnesotans call the
grass strip between street and sidewalk the boulevard and a rubber band a
rubber binder, and many cook coffee when they brew it. Three-fourths of a
sample population spoke root with the vowel of put; one third, through
school influence, pronounced /ah/ in aunt instead of the usual Northern
short /a/, as in pants. Many younger speakers pronounce caller and collar
alike."

Having fun now - from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_band_gun#Types_of_rubber_band_gun
"The rubber-band Gatling gun is a fearsome weapon...."

"Constructed almost wholly of wood, the Gatling gun usually has between 8
and 12 barrels, each of which can take up to twelve rubber bands on a
similar mechanism to the repeater pistol. This means a twelve-barrel Gatling
gun using twelve-shot repeater mechanisms can fire 144 rubber bands
automatically."

Cool.