from the late 80s through the early 00s the sister of a close friend who lived in a gated community on an east texas lakefront had a joint interest in a 3 inch diameter cannon along with 6 other families in the same community. they had gotten it as an escalation in the july 4th fireworks wars with another gated community across the lake. a couple of times when my friend came from his graduate work out of state he would take me to the party. it was . . . idiosyncratically texan, for sure. they had worked out a standard charge of smokeless powder and packed it with a standard wad of butcher paper.
the fun ended on 7/4/2004 when someone loaded it with the standard charge and wadding and then someone else loaded it with the standard charge and wadding and then when it didn’t fire someone else loaded it yet again with the standard charge and wadding, packed it real tight, and put three fuses in instead of one. it fired that time but blew out the side of the barrel. no rednecks were injured in the destruction of the cannon although my friend’s brother-in-law claimed his ear were ringing three days later.
