I've been meandering through the ancient posts. The 2004 fright pig thread sent me into convulsive fits of laughter. I came upon the 2004 "when I was eleven-true confessions" thread and just have to confess! Albeit belatedly. It's all comin' back to me now. "T-jet father, forgive me for I have sinned....repeatedly." It must have been about '68 or '69, hard to pin it down. Deep in the bowels of my neighbors basement. Oh the horrors. Many of which were inspired after a weekend at the drags. At the time we had been experimenting with a drycleaner bag UFO project. They were fired by alcohol soaked cotton balls supported with balsa wing stringer stock. We were busted and following our restrictions the surplus cotton and alcohol were just wasting away! The cotton balls were quickly torn in half and twisted into wicks. These were soaked and tucked into the space between the rear body and chassis then trailed out the back. Just add fire and punch it. A very convincing fiery burnout all around the large road course. We craved more and the simulated blower explosion was born. Tape a firecracker to the hood with the fuse angled to the side of the track. In the staging area was a short candle jammed into a wad of floral clay pinched from one of moms flower arrangements. Black Cats were coveted for their longer fuses! Enter the staging area and lightem up. Punch it! Too much boost at the 1/8th mile mark... kaboom. The cracker cars gave birth to the exciting but unpredictable rocket cars. A suitable bottle rocket(or a disassembled pinwheel would make three) with the guide stick broken off was tape mounted to the roof of a car with all the guts(excess weight and drag) removed. Cars were staged up to the candle with the leftover stick cuz you wouldnt want to burn your fingers. Saftey First was our motto! LOL Tip: Glue tinfoil to the trunk for multiple uses. The whistling ones were kinda cool. When the fire works ran out sometime in the middle of july, the Evil Knevil ring of fire jump was already on the drawing board. The only requirement being a ridiculously unmakeable jump over the large size tonka dump truck(we didnt have a hundred school buses). The ring of fire was quickly created from a coat hanger appropriately modified to jam into the box of the dump truck. Jute garden twine was kyped from dads garden shed for proper wicking of the ring. The ring was of a quick release design (jam it in, rip it out) so it could be quickly recharged in our cookie pan filled with alcohol. This kept the merriment on a timely scedule. Not sure where the cookie pan came from but you can bet it was some form of petty larceny! I clearly remember mom sniffing me up and down on occasion that summer and asking me "Have you been smoking?!" I almost said yes considering that being caught smoking couldnt be as bad as the shellacing we took for the UFO project. "Yeah Ma smokin' t-jets". BTW the UFO's were quite successful and I remember them drifty eerily off into the summer twilight. Camaros, Mustangs, and Falcons oh my! If there's a hell, the devil will have me at a bench resurrecting all the tortured t-jets of the world. It would combine two of my favorite things, T-jets and fire!
That'd be kinda cool! This is a great site filled with humor and creativity- I dig it! I'm busting a gut, learning some new things and remembering things I'd forgotten. Thanks for the laughs, Bill (aka:confessed killer of t-jets) Note: This is a modified excerpt from a "true crimes confession bio" that may appear in HO World. Embarassingly it's all true. Strangely the more I write the more that comes back. Is this ahlziemers or brain damage from styrene fume exposure in my youth?
That'd be kinda cool! This is a great site filled with humor and creativity- I dig it! I'm busting a gut, learning some new things and remembering things I'd forgotten. Thanks for the laughs, Bill (aka:confessed killer of t-jets) Note: This is a modified excerpt from a "true crimes confession bio" that may appear in HO World. Embarassingly it's all true. Strangely the more I write the more that comes back. Is this ahlziemers or brain damage from styrene fume exposure in my youth?
