Models

[old rat 49]

http://truckstopmodels.com/catalog/index.php?manufacturers_id=97 Found these P-15's Edited July 16, 2010 by old rat 49

[Joe Flanagan]

OK, who's got the firecrackers?

[old rat 49]

This is 1/87 scale. HO

[BobT-47P15]

Seeing that Railway Express truck model reminded me of a Boy Scout trip

our troop took from Aurora, MO to Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, NM

back in 1958. You had to be 14 years of age to attend Philmont.

I looked on Mapquest, which says it's about 712 miles one way

and should take just bit over 11 hours. Our trip took 4 or 5

days going, 10 days there, and another 4 or 5 days returning home.

Our particular truck was a 1946 or 47 International, retired from duty.

It probably ran along at

maybe 50 mph or so.....don't really remember now. The troop dads worked

on it....put some sliding windows in the sides, used 4 old school bus seats

facing the middle, made overhead storage racks, and a heavy duty wire

screen door for the rear for ventilation. There were 9 boys and my Dad,

who did all the driving. One boy would be co-pilot, sitting on a storage

box/seat on the front passenger side. 8 in the back. We stopped at

scout troops on the way, where they would give us lodging for the night

at their meeting places.

Saw a lot of sights on that trip, traveled thru some mountains, visited

the Royal Gorge and other spots of interest.

That old truck ran fine, the only problem being a couple flat tires.

One tire was replaced with a aircraft tire. A pretty smooth trip,

aside from us guys getting into it with our buddies on occasion.

Don't think that journey would be possible today.

[power_hungry]

My choice for firecrackers was WWI Airplane models... more fragile, better effect.

[Joe Flanagan]

YES!! Balsa wood models were good too. But nowadays you can't get firecrackers that will really blow the models to smithereens. We sent a model of a Japanese battleship out onto a pond once loaded with four or five firecrackers. I still remember how realistic it looked when it blew up and sank. Even had the plumes of water shooting up into the air.

[Don Coatney]

But nowadays you can't get firecrackers that will really blow the models to smithereens. .

Come to Tennessee. You can get just about anything but an M-80.

[Young Ed]

Ah an M80 I had one of those once. Started the woods on fire with it......

[Joe Flanagan]

Ahh, Tennessee. Tennessee calls me. If I told my brother about this he'd force me to take a road trip with him.

[Niel Hoback]

Ah yes, all the fireworks stands along US 41, Crazy Charlie's just past the Kentucky border, I remember.

[Joe Flanagan]

So these Tennessee fireworks, are they like the fireworks of old? The ones that will reduce a Revell model to splinters? The ones that will shatter a window pane and wake old Mrs. Muckenfuss out of a sound sleep?

[Niel Hoback]

Uhhhhh, Joe, why do you want to know?

[Don Coatney]

I was bad!!!

About 1962 or 63 while in high school (summer school to boot) I once set a cherry bomb on a time delay cigarrett fuse (I did this while on lunch break) outside the building behind a shrub. Returned to class and waited for a long time. It finally exploded. and fortunately no damage was done except for the big boom. I was not caught.

[Joe Flanagan]

Laughing out loud at that one, Don. My mother and father used to sit in front of the fireplace after we all went to bed. My father was studying for the police chief's exam and he was wound up tighter than Joseph Goebbels. My brother tossed one of those old Binaca mouth wash aerosol cans in the flames. Remember those little tiny cans they used to sell back in the 70s? We go up to our room and he's laughing and laughing and I kept asking him what was so funny and he says, "Just wait awhile and you'll see."

The funniest thing was the 15 seconds between the BANG! and the footsteps coming up the stairs. Total silence. Then it wasn't so funny.

[BobT-47P15]

Those cherry bombs back in the 1950s would certainly plump up a

rural mailbox.

One kid I knew had a miniature cannon made from pipe.

He would stick the fuse of a cherry bomb into the end of an

M80 - light the M80 - it would shoot that cherry bomb about half

the length of our football field and it would explode in mid air.

[Joe Flanagan]

That's something I'd like to see. We filled a CO2 cartridge with gunpowder once and put a fuse in it. Put it inside a melon and it turned into a pink haze.