OK, here's one. Anybody else do this?
When city workers would lay fresh tar on street cracks, us kids would take sharpened popsicle sticks and scrape up some of this still slightly warm goo and chew it. It was sort of like poor mans Blackjack gum. We were told by our parents that the tar would also clean your teeth.
I got one more. Flying Bumble Bee kites. That's right. We would soak Bumble Bees with the hose until they could not fly. Then we would tie a string to one of it's legs and when he dried out and flew, wa la! a Bumble Bee kite. We would hang on for as long as we could, before letting it fly off string and all. Would not even consider doing this to a yellow jacket, or wasp, though we did dare each other.
Not from street cracks, but my grandpa had tar he used in roofing on his farm. I'd go and break off a piece from time to time :)).
And make things go boom with whatever was available: gunpowder, blasting caps, dynamite...