When you come from a family the size of my family you can expect to see just about anything when we got together. My Father had 2 Brothers and 3 Sisters. When the hormones had set in and they were all married off, they produced a batch of rascals which consisted of 27 Grandchildren for my Grandparents. 21 Boys and 5 girls (if I remember right, don't hold me to the figures, I'm old...)
Now the only thing that saved the world was that God had placed my Grandparents on a ranch far away from the hustle and bustle of what then was a pretty mellow town by the name of Austin, Texas. This was a good thing, because when you got the S,F, Glass Family together, there was no doubt a little bit of noise to be raised.
This happened usually twice a year. Once on the Sunday following the 4th of July which was the Glass Family Annual Reunion and on Christmas Eve at my Grandparents house which just by coincidence was directly across from our house.
There were many family rituals that occurred during that evening, a lot of eating, a lot of laughing, a lot of "do you remember when's", There was the gathering of the entire family in one room for the Story from the Bible about the Birth of Jesus, a few songs, and the passing out of gifts.
And then, there was the Bottle Rocket War...
The rules were simple... All cousins from about the age of 12 were split into 2 groups. The battle ground, was the street between the 2 houses. Each of their front yard fences were the edge of the DMZ.
The object... to try and make as many cousins as possible on the other side duck, dodge, drop to the ground or if nothing else turn their backs on the incoming bottle rocket that had been zero'ed in on you. Ammo was usually quantified by no more then a Gross (12 Dozen) bottlerockets per participant.
L.L.A. (legal launching apparatus) was anything you could come up with that would help to assist the rocket to find a straight and true path across the street and into the crowd of cousins on the other side. These homemade mortars consisted of, but were not limited to, the tubes from golf bags, copper pipes, old BB guns or popguns with the insides ripped out and one of my favorite, a old double barreled no longer usable 12 gauge shot gun. Or... if you really got good at it to hold the bottle rocket in hand, light it and hurl it high in the air so that when the fuse hit the black powder inside the projectile would have reached it's highest altitude and was pointing towards the ground, hopefully towards the "other" yard.... Very effective, IF at that point in time, it was pointed toward THE OTHER YARD. Needless to say.... not always the case...
All of these contraptions had been invented during the week before said competition in the garages, tool sheds or barns by each participant. Some were hold-outs from previous wars, others were "new and improved" assault gear.
Other weapons consisted of dried "buffalo goards" with a Black Cat Firecracker pushed down in it or a smoke bomb, which was lit and hurled (with very little effect) but was good for making the opposing team run away from it screaming as if it was about to blow up at their feet, which it usually didn't do. The other option was to just throw the smoke bombs, which when hurled into the opposing team made it hard to find the fuse on your bottle rocket to light or to cause them to run into each other in the low hanging cloud of smoke that settle over each front yard.
What determined the "Winners"? Well claims and bragging were always made by both sides but actually, everyone one was a winner as long as "someone" didn't get hurt which every one of our Mothers had said was going to happen just before the starting of the game, as if that was going stop the war from happening, yea right. It was simple, the fight continued until all the rockets were gone.
Then, it was time for the High Altitude Fancy Rockets, Roman Candles, whistlers, spark spewing mini tanks, poppers and Sparklers for the smaller kids which ended with at least one or two burning the ends of their fingers by trying to hold it to long or picking up a spent sparkler which was still hot. "Dang, those stung".
When all was said and done and everything which held gunpowder inside it were gone we all slowly headed back into the house for dessert and then the dreaded hugging and kissing of the Aunts and saying Goodbyes until.... next year....
Ah.... for the good ole days....
Merry Christmas Everyone.
Johnny
Now the only thing that saved the world was that God had placed my Grandparents on a ranch far away from the hustle and bustle of what then was a pretty mellow town by the name of Austin, Texas. This was a good thing, because when you got the S,F, Glass Family together, there was no doubt a little bit of noise to be raised.
This happened usually twice a year. Once on the Sunday following the 4th of July which was the Glass Family Annual Reunion and on Christmas Eve at my Grandparents house which just by coincidence was directly across from our house.
There were many family rituals that occurred during that evening, a lot of eating, a lot of laughing, a lot of "do you remember when's", There was the gathering of the entire family in one room for the Story from the Bible about the Birth of Jesus, a few songs, and the passing out of gifts.
And then, there was the Bottle Rocket War...
The rules were simple... All cousins from about the age of 12 were split into 2 groups. The battle ground, was the street between the 2 houses. Each of their front yard fences were the edge of the DMZ.
The object... to try and make as many cousins as possible on the other side duck, dodge, drop to the ground or if nothing else turn their backs on the incoming bottle rocket that had been zero'ed in on you. Ammo was usually quantified by no more then a Gross (12 Dozen) bottlerockets per participant.
L.L.A. (legal launching apparatus) was anything you could come up with that would help to assist the rocket to find a straight and true path across the street and into the crowd of cousins on the other side. These homemade mortars consisted of, but were not limited to, the tubes from golf bags, copper pipes, old BB guns or popguns with the insides ripped out and one of my favorite, a old double barreled no longer usable 12 gauge shot gun. Or... if you really got good at it to hold the bottle rocket in hand, light it and hurl it high in the air so that when the fuse hit the black powder inside the projectile would have reached it's highest altitude and was pointing towards the ground, hopefully towards the "other" yard.... Very effective, IF at that point in time, it was pointed toward THE OTHER YARD. Needless to say.... not always the case...
All of these contraptions had been invented during the week before said competition in the garages, tool sheds or barns by each participant. Some were hold-outs from previous wars, others were "new and improved" assault gear.
Other weapons consisted of dried "buffalo goards" with a Black Cat Firecracker pushed down in it or a smoke bomb, which was lit and hurled (with very little effect) but was good for making the opposing team run away from it screaming as if it was about to blow up at their feet, which it usually didn't do. The other option was to just throw the smoke bombs, which when hurled into the opposing team made it hard to find the fuse on your bottle rocket to light or to cause them to run into each other in the low hanging cloud of smoke that settle over each front yard.
What determined the "Winners"? Well claims and bragging were always made by both sides but actually, everyone one was a winner as long as "someone" didn't get hurt which every one of our Mothers had said was going to happen just before the starting of the game, as if that was going stop the war from happening, yea right. It was simple, the fight continued until all the rockets were gone.
Then, it was time for the High Altitude Fancy Rockets, Roman Candles, whistlers, spark spewing mini tanks, poppers and Sparklers for the smaller kids which ended with at least one or two burning the ends of their fingers by trying to hold it to long or picking up a spent sparkler which was still hot. "Dang, those stung".
When all was said and done and everything which held gunpowder inside it were gone we all slowly headed back into the house for dessert and then the dreaded hugging and kissing of the Aunts and saying Goodbyes until.... next year....
Ah.... for the good ole days....
Merry Christmas Everyone.
Johnny
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