News from KILOHANA GRILL

Bamboo Cannons -
Plantation Style Noise makers

(This is a reprint from last January-thought I would re-run this with an update.)

When I was in high school, us boys would hike into the forest and cut down bamboo to make cannons. Now it sounds pretty simple except, the bamboo we used were about 15' to 20' and probably 8" in diameter. We only wanted about 10' of the bamboo so we would climb half way up the stalk and cut the top off. The top would drop to the ground and of course, we had to be careful not to kill the other kid below. It was this piece - about 10' that we cut to use to make our "cannons".

Now you'll have to use your imagination about how we constructed this cannon. We would take a long steel rod or pipe and poke holes through all the knots except for the one on the bottom of the bamboo stalk. Then, laying the bamboo down, we would drill a hole on the top side of the last chamber and fill it with gasoline or turpentine. Then two of us took turns blowing into the hole so the fumes would fill each chamber all the way to the top. Even with two boys, we would have to blow until we almost passed out... Then, we would get a separate long stick, wrap the tip with cloth and dip it in gas to use to ignite the fumes through the little blow hole and it would go BOOM! It was our way to make a lot of noise without spending money on fireworks. We were constantly improving our "process" and started using a bicycle foot pump to get the air flowing instead of doing all that blowing. Got even smarter when we used Freddy's dad's air compressor!

We used to have a blast (literally). We would set off these cannons near the drunk driving check points knowing that the police officers couldn't leave their stations to chase us. We would also have cannon wars shooting empty carnations cream cans out of the top.

Only time someone got burned (literally) was when one of the bamboo cannons split and the flaming gas got onto one of the younger kids. Two older boys tackled him into the reservoir nearby. His clothes didn't fare so well. Kid almost drowned instead of having serious burns because they held him down to douse all the flames. After that, we improved our design and wrapped the bottom chamber with wire to prevent splitting for "safety" reasons.

In hindsight, there are several points in this story where we could have probably died but we must have been lucky because no one was ever seriously injured as far as I can remember.

UPDATE: On my last trip to Kauai, I noticed some of those bamboo forrests where we used to get the bamboo for our cannons, fishing poles, and kites were gone. HOW SAD! The younger generation of kids will not have the opportunity to use their imagination on improving our "art". If you can, please help to preserve our rain forests.

Aloha, Myron

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