It was called an `ashcan' because it was almost a quarter stick of dynamite with a fuse in the middle. My juvenile cronies and I dropped them in the 55 gallon steel trash cans that people used to burn their trash out back in the alley, so they were usually full of ashes.
You light it, toss it in, run and .... WHOOMPH! Then a tall column of ash ascending, something like an atomic bomb, with dogs barking and old timers cackling and waving their newspapers at us and grannies calling the cops, but we were long gone.
What's not to like?
Ohhhh did you ever have "Gatling Guns" They were cardboard tubes that held 50 bottle rockets in them. You light one fuse and the bottle rockets launched in a spiral fashion like a gatling gun.
Ohhh funnnnnnnnnnnn. We used to light those, when we could afford them, and shoot them at one another. HEHEHEHEHEHEHE
When I was seven years old I saw a woman running, carrying a towel with three fingers on it. She was running to the hospital because her son had lit a cherry bomb in the basement before he realized there was no place to throw it! It's just one of those memories that has stuck with me throughout my life. I guess that's my aversion to people setting off fireworks. Now professional fireworks. that's another story. We just moved to Bullhead City, AZ across the river from Laughlin, NV. On July 4th they have the best firewors display in the west. They happen to launch it practically next door to where I live on the Colorado River. I can literally sit on my balcony and it's like a private fireworks display. I've never been so close to something so wonderful before. I can't wait until Tuesdsay to experience it again!