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> My memories of childhood friends are utterly bittersweet. When I was ~9, I fell in with a group that played with WWII munitions that we found in the woods. A few years later, two of my younger friends were seriously injured. I was never overtly blamed, but I felt guilty.

Care to share more (as much as you feel comfortable)? That's a very unconventional childhood experience! Thanks!

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Basically, quality control was iffy, so an appreciable percentage of munitions didn't work. Or were just lost and forgotten, in the heat of battle. Weapons too.

So it was quite the wonderland for kids who liked to blow stuff up, and play at war. But you had to know what stuff was relatively safe, and what was likely to go off, if you looked at it wrong. For example, you avoided anything that contained picric acid.

But hey, I lived through it. And it was great fun. Overall, it was arguably safer than making acetone peroxide, which I gather does go off, if you look at it wrong.

> But hey, I lived through it.

But would you tell us this story if you didn't?

Let’s get serious here, who would finish writing the story once he’s 6 feet underground and can’t get a cell signal?

IIRC this was (and still is!) pretty common in Europe after World War II.

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