[Sca-cooks] Stefan's can cannon was A Knife Problem

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Dec 28, 2008, at 9:37 AM, Georgia Foster wrote:

>
> Oh my
>
> I had not thought of can cannons in ........ many years.
>
> I absolutely MUST raid the next 'pastoralist campsite' ... must must  
> must.   There are so many things the two younger children have not  
> experienced.

My son and I, after our annual re-viewing of "A Christmas Story", went  
hardcore and listened to several hours worth of old Jean Shepherd  
radio broadcasts, one of which included the tale of how he, Schwartz,  
Flick, Bruner and Scut Simonson (I guess they were older; Kissel and  
Kasimir not being in evidence in this one), and several other members  
of their Boy Scout troop, spent a Saturday afternoon constructing the  
World's Biggest Carbide Cannon behind Doppler's garage.

Apparently it involved a 30-gallon galvanized iron trash can, the lid  
to same being glued on with some sort of rubbery roofing sealant, and  
they all then spent the next six months denying they were ever there,  
or that in fact it ever happened, living in terror of being thrown in  
the slammer for blowing up Doppler's garage and half the neighborhood  
in general.

Ah, for the good old days (which I'm sure Shepherd would have argued  
were the same as the current ones and therefore not old, and not  
especially good). My son's comment on all of it was that kids used to  
get away with more crimes than they do now, and that Shepherd's  
nemeses, Scut Farkas and Grover Dill, would simply have vanished  
without a trace if _he_ had lived in Hohman, Indiana in the 30's.

<sniff> I'm so proud.

Adamantius