We used to buy black powder in the early 70's(pre-teens)at a neighborhood hardware store. I used to tape shotgun shells to the front of my BB gun. I used Estes rocket launcher fuses for all kinds of illegal pyrotechnic displays involving everything from gasoline to bootleg fireworks. Grocery carts could be modified into jitneys. The front forks on bikes could be extended. Fireplugs were made to be opened on 0 degree nights, so the street was a sheet of ice the next day... Darn! Its amazing that I made it this far...
We didn't have access to black powder, but we learned that if you bought CO2 cartridges and punctured them to let that nasty CO2 out, you could then fill them with shaved off match heads.
Pound the match heads in with a large nail and then insert a firecracker fuse, l ight and run like
h@ll Those things would go a city block if you were lucky enough to find anything after the explosion