So many stupid things I did as a kid, it’s a wonder nothing really bad happened. One combined arrows and powerful firecrackers (Silver Salutes).
Digging thru my basement with a couple of friends we came across a fairly powerful bow and several broken, wood shaft arrows. We decided to duct tape firecrackers onto the ends of the arrows and launch them high in the air, over a farm field across the street from my house. This “stupid idea” worked fantastically well, with nice, strong explosions a couple hundred feet in the air. They reverberated across the small residential/fam valley. All the things that could have gone wrong, didn’t this time.
But, soon we were out of arrows. Searching further in the basement, we found many unbroken arrows (that we didn’t want to waste) and one, very, very long arrow. Just how high could this arrow go? Could I even pull the bow back that far? We had to find out. So the naked arrow (no silver salute) was eventually launched, almost straight up, but angling across the street where we planned to retrieve it after launch.
The launch was perfect, the arrow traveled true and high, so high we almost lost it in the sky. Higher and higher, up and up it went. Higher than we could have imagined. And then, the excitement started to morph to worry. The wind, gusty up that high, the arrow starting to drift. The arrow coming back down, the silver point down, faster and faster. It wasn’t going to land in the field, or the street. Or on us thankfully, but it was headed right at the neighbor’s house. And slammed into the roof, with a surprisingly loud thump. Right near the chimney. Such a sight, the chimney silhouetted against the sky, with the long arrow, buried a few feet away, straight down.
The thump had been heard inside our neighbor’s house. Fortunately only a high school kid, several years older than us, was home. He came out, we told him what had happened, pointed at the imbedded arrow. He shook his head, got a ladder, climbed up on the roof to retrieve the arrow. Try as he might, it was like the sword in the stone, it wasn’t coming out. Eventually he broke it off at the base. Gave us the broken arrow, and we never heard another word about it.
Another bullet dodged… or, broken arrow.