Another fun thing was to take the old metal tennis ball cans, put one tennis ball in, pour some gasoline over it and throw in a match. The pressure would build up and shoot a burning tennis ball about fifty feet.
I also remember taking three foot sections of pipe and using it as a launcher for bottle rockets and having wars with them.
Did you ever use black powder to get rid of red ant nests the fun way? On a ranch, you use a lot of ammo-especially in hunting season-the male family members loaded our ammo, and there was always a couple cans of black powder in the shed with the other loading equipment.
We would pour some into an empty can, go to an active ant nest, pour a good amount into the hole, then walk away while pouring a little trail from the nest till you get a good distance away-relatively speaking-light the trail with a match or lighter, then we’d take cover and wait-a muffled boom, the ground heaved and shook a bit, as dirt and ants exploded way up into the air-we howled with glee, then went off to find more ant nests to blow up. Gasoline works for that, too-but the black powder produces a more spectacular result...