[Hiddigeigei]

In the 1940s, we used to make our own explosives (salt peter, sulfur and charcoal ground up together). Got the formula from the family’s 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. A kid could buy potassium nitrate then at the local drugstore ... made firecrackers out of toilet-paper rolls wrapped with layers of glued string which made an impressive pop.

[doorgunner69]

Read about Molotov cockatails when I was in junior HS and bought the gas and made a few. Went down to Ballona creek (by Marina del Rey) and tried them out on the rocks. Was not impressed, not like the movies at all.

Now, I gather, a kid my age back then would not be able to walk up and buy gasoline.