This could very well spiral into a general confessional thread about stupid things we did when we were kids with toy missiles… 
All too likely to inspire the next generation… 
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When I was a teen, every teen who my mother drove with got the talk:
“At 60 miles an hour, that loose pencil becomes a missile that will launch into your eyeball.”
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In early-mid 70’s Vancouver, no hobby shops I knew carried rocketry supplies. Kits could be ordered from Estes but if you brought in motors you had to have an explosives import license. So 11yo me read up on that, requested the application and exam, filled it out, and voila, my Dad was licensed to import rocket motors. He is probably still on some RCMP database. He too turns 90 this year! I might have to put on a rocketry display in both his and Mr Estes’ honour.
My Dad worked in an industrial environment and came home with WCB posters of severed hands in gloves etc, so safety protocols were top of mind for me. So I safely experimented with burning solvents, making gunpowder, shoving flaming styrene model cars into fireplaces etc. Got shit for pounding Screechers. What a time.
Plus everything everyone said above.
Edit - PS - what ever happened to Jetex motors? Gol I wish I had one or two now.
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same. i helped my son and other cub scouts build the basest of kits, and the day we went to the park to launch these kids were super excited. we had a good success rate on the launches… the recoveries not so much (too close to the long island sound). but years later when my son – then in his late 20’s – said, “hey remember when we fired off those rockets? that was cool”, it was a nice feeling.
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probably not, sadly. it’s an outside hobby.
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Because of the taper, I guess the guide rod would have to go through the rocket.
I remember building the Wolverine. It was so hot looking, until my friend accidentally stepped on it.
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That’s the one the tree ate!
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We always replaced the recovery chute with fireworks or gunpowder. Shame on us.
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It doesn’t have to be. It’s just a question of what you’re willing to risk. 
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Wayne Kellner did a brilliant cover for the Model Rocket News (Vol. 8, No. 2) doing a riff on the many engine theme. Incidentally, the back page of that issue shows Astronaut Bill Anders launching his first model rocket.
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To the stars indeed. Thank you so much Mr. Estes. Made & launched a couple of these, once in an enormous football field near the high school. So we managed not to lose all of them.
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