In the 50`s my grandfather would take me to the local hardware store, buy a case of dynamite and then proceed to various properties in the neighborhood, push the stick under an big old tree stump, ligh`er and run back of another tree. It was fun. Later on in 1957-58 after Sputnik, the US Army encouraged all the youth of America to build rockets so we could catch up to the Russians. I promptly got some, saltpeter, gunpowder, sulphur, sawdust, etc., zinc powder and some tubing, made some rockets with little dollar cameras you could order form the comic books. Then had a delayed Camera trip via fuse to the parachute load. The local police would say to us, when I showed him the US Army book on how to build rockets, “Be careful, boys. Try not to hit any planes flying over.” The local town board actually warned local pilots to steer clear of the 50 acre stretch of pasture where we were firing our rockets. This went on for 2 years and nobody bothered us. We even won science awards a the school area science shows. we carried the rockets, some 6 feet long, from the house 3 miles to the school right thru town and nobody even bothered us.
IT WAS FREEDOM AMERICA!!!
If this happened now in town, all the liberal men would wringing their hands and the liberal women would be peeing in their pants / and they'd be on the phone to the police in total fright.