In the early 90s, the pioneers and Octobrists became history; in difficult times, many parents became not particularly interested in what their children were doing; young people and teenagers found themselves absolutely free to choose their leisure time, but as you know, there was practically nothing to choose from. This post is not about childhood alcoholism and drug addiction. This post is about children's (you won't find anything like it anymore) entertainments of that time, when your whole life was still ahead.
Propita, landmines and bombs.
Our city is surrounded on 3 sides by various factories, including Khrompik - a Klondike of various chemical reagents, but the most valuable loot after visiting the territory was saltpeter, and on the way back don’t forget to look at the dairy plant, there is a necessary component for the shell of land mines - food foil (from which the lids on milk and kefir bottles were made).
First, the impregnation was “printed” in one of the secluded basements of a neighboring house, saltpeter was diluted in ordinary water, paper was taken, soaked in the resulting solution, and laid out to dry on hot water pipes. The soaking process took about half a day and several of my father’s books (newspapers and other waste paper were also used).
First, the impregnation was “printed” in one of the secluded basements of a neighboring house, saltpeter was diluted in ordinary water, paper was taken, soaked in the resulting solution, and laid out to dry on hot water pipes. The soaking process took about half a day and several of my father’s books (newspapers and other waste paper were also used).
The propita is ready, a sheet of paper upon contact with the slightest spark instantly burns to the ground, releasing a huge amount of energy and smoke. If white balls were released during the combustion process, then this impregnation was considered especially powerful; with such a filling, any land mine would fly higher than a 16-story building.
Propita was used mainly for land mines; a sheet of propita was tightly rolled into a small cylinder, then wrapped equally tightly in food foil, a hole was made in the back of the land mine with a nail and a wick from the same impregnation was inserted. A tightly and neatly rolled landmine could fly to the height of a 16-story building, but the flight path was always unpredictable, which many times led to burnt jackets, pants and minor burns.
They also made bombs from the impregnated liquid, took glass bottles (mainly for medicines, the thicker the glass, the better), filled them tightly with the impregnated liquid, after lighting the wick of the bottles, they threw it at a distance, it began to smoke and at the end there was a small explosion. But it also happened that the fuse went out, the bottle did not explode, the tester carefully sneaked up to the “mine” and found out the cause, eliminated it and made an explosion.
I had one friend (neighbor), he printed about a thousand sheets of impregnation and put them in his bosom in a Chinese leather jacket, and here he stands with a bomb, surrounded by roots, lights the fuse and throws it away, but he took the bottle and did not explode , the boy came closer, picked up the bomb and began to blow the extinguished wick, and just one small spark flew off and hit him right in his bosom, eyewitnesses say that the guy flared up like a torch and stood for several seconds in the remains of Chinese leatherette. After 3 days, the poor guy died in the regional burn center...
Kirabit.
I don’t know the correct name of that substance, but all the boys called it kirabit. These are gray pebbles that resemble compressed cement; you could also get it on Khrompik. When it came into contact with water, the kirabit began to boil and, as I understand it, emit flammable gas. It was used mainly like this: Take a small piece, throw it into a tin beer can, add a little water (mostly it was ordinary spitting), shake it well, hold a burning match to the hole in the can and Bang!! Cooler than any firecrackers. A small piece was enough for a hundred shots, although the cans often could not withstand 20 micro-explosions.
Matches.
Yes, yes, ordinary matches, or rather their upper combustible part. The most common use of matches was as dowel crackers. They took an ordinary construction dowel, drove it into the asphalt with a stone, poured several match heads into the resulting hole and plugged it all with the same dowel, and then topped it with a herax stone, the sound was no worse than a Chinese firecracker. No one was seriously injured from such entertainment, with the exception of the asphalt area in the yard.
They made firecrackers from bicycle spokes (I won’t describe them in detail, because there are many modifications), from bolts unscrewed from school desks, from clothespins, and they just loved to play around with matches, and as everyone knows, “Matches are not a toy for children, buy lighters.”
Bonfires.
What teenager doesn't love a campfire in the vacant lot behind their house? There are no such. So our fires did not end with extinguishing like pioneers, someone was sure to throw something explosive into the fire, everything was used, medical ampoules, mounting cartridges, roofing slate, cans of dichlorvos, the list goes on for a long time. One day an oxygen tank was used, good. that it was outside the city on the freshly marked site of the future cottage village, there stood an unfinished abandoned house (4 walls). By the time of the explosion, we were 2 km away (the Carpathian moped is not a Chinese mokik). Returning to look at what had been done, we were missing one wall.
Tubes
In my childhood there was no airsoft and paintball, in my childhood there were pipes. An ordinary metal tube about a meter long and about 10mm in diameter. Fortunately, there was a factory nearby that produced pipes, and there was a lot of this stuff, of any length and caliber. True, it was dangerous to go on trips to buy new weapons; the plant was well guarded, but this did not stop us. There was one case when one of my comrades was caught by security at a factory, but then the punishment was humane, they forced me to wash the floors at the entrance))
Let's continue about the pipes; rowan berries and unripe hawthorn were used as ammunition. You take a mouthful of berries and begin intense lung training. The stronger and sharper you blow, the farther and more painfully it will fly. There were 6x6 shootouts with the neighboring yard, a lot of people flew in, there was even the possibility of losing an eye. But this never stopped, excitement and adrenaline, the territory of the old school densely planted with berry bushes, a real war.
Some improved their weapons by attaching a clothespin like a front sight to the end of the tube, wrapping it with electrical tape, and even attaching handles from old toy pistols to make it easier to hold. They stopped being interested in pipes when the school garden was razed to the ground to become a driving school training ground.
Crossbows, match, arrows.
I'll start with the simplest crossbows, or rather matched crossbows. There were many modifications, some made them on a spring basis, some from wood chips, some pulled an elastic band out of their mother’s panties. They were made mainly at the time when the snow melted, and all last year's dry grass was visible around. What to do with such grass (you ask the then teenager)? Burn it of course! Match arrows were just for such functions. You’re walking home from school, you don’t seem to bend over anywhere, don’t squat, don’t set fire to anything, you walk calmly as if nothing had happened, and behind you black scorched circles crawl across the lawns and lawns... One minus of Matchshooters, they often gave misfired (the match did not light), but this depended only on the freshness of the chirkash and the quality of the matches.
Self-propelled guns, scarecrows, arson.
Self-propelled guns, scarecrows and arson - this is the worst. A seriously built self-propelled gun was compared to a firearm; one could even kill with one. Basically, this is a simple design, a thick-walled tube was tightly sealed at one end, a hole was made to ignite the charge, all this was attached to a homemade handle, the result was a musket-type pistol. A dangerous thing, not only for the target, but also for the shooter himself; the muzzle could simply be torn apart. History is silent about how many poor birds, cats and dogs were wounded and killed by young sadists; I personally have not dealt with such stupidity.
There were many other entertainments such as slingshots, duct tape bombs, etc. I told about what I personally did. Tell me too.
Thank you for your attention.
