Like you, it's a miracle they are still alive to tell the tales.
MKM
My grandfather used to have a bunch of dynamite.
Around here (and I guess other places) you could buy it for clearing stumps, etc. on farmland.
One Christmas Eve, Papa & his brother got drunk on moonshine and decided to set off a couple of sticks.
I was a small boy and don't remember it... but apparently they set it off too close to the house.
Almost all the windows on that side of the house blew out & pictures were knocked off the wall.
My Granny was NOT impressed.
So she made him get rid of it, but for some reason he kept the blasting caps.
Now years later when I was about 12 or 13 my friend Brian and I were rambling around Papa's workshop.
Of course, we found the blasting caps!
There were probably 200 or so in a small red cardboard DuPont box.
We were able to set them off by scraping the explosive material in the base with a small screwdriver, then putting a "Black Cat" firecracker, conveniently just the right diameter, inside.
We blew up watermelons, pumpkins, plastic airplane models, beer cans, etc, with great effect.
All I can say was the Lord must've been watching over us, since we both have all our fingers, eyes, etc.
Thanks so much for the ping!!
CD