One boring sunday

Have you ever read the side of a deodorant can?

The part where it warns you against puncturing the can or exposing it to heat? Well, one boring Sunday afternoon during the boring July school holidays of 1998 my brother, a few friends and I read the side of a can and decided to test the warning.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

We took the can into the garage, placed it down on the floor and one of my brother’s friends started to light a fire beneath it. This lasted for about 20 minutes. It seemed that the can was quite heat resistant. At this point someone spotted our small boat and decided to use some of its fuel to boost the small fire into a much bigger fire. Fuel was placed upon the can and nothing happened. Hmm. More fuel? Of course! After 5 more minutes of applying fuel nothing was happening, we were bored again and out of matches. “There’s more in the house” I said, and ran to the house to find some more matches. As I was looking around the house I heard a large bang, my eyes widened, I knew exactly what that bang meant. It meant the can wasn’t lying and it was also a much louder bang than expected. Oh shit.

I ran to the garage and stopped at the door, smoke poured out and a light flickered. I saw a figure walking towards me, eyed wide open and jaw dropped, not unlike my own expression. Light fixtures were hanging off the roof, everything had fallen of the shelves and there was a black mark on the floor where the can once lay. There were no remains of the can at all. I asked if everyone was alive and didn’t have any can embedded in their kidneys, they were freaked out, but fine. After 5 minutes of silence we finally realised two things:

  1. We trashed the garage and the neighbours had probably rung the cops.
  2. It was nearly 4pm. My mother was due home around 4pm.

We sprung into action. Smoke was cleared out of the garage, mats were placed over the black area on the floor, lighting fixtures were fixed and everything was put back into place. The only thing that could not be corrected was our fear. Thankfully, the neighbours were out, so no police showed up.

We stood in front of the garage doors, finally laughing about the event, when someone noticed that the doors to the garage were not right. Not right, meaning they had come off their railing. Laughter turned into fear, fear into panic and panic into name calling. We tried pushing them back onto the railing, but the doors were too heavy to lift. Just then the Motherships car pulled into the drive way. Act normal everyone.

We stood in front of the doors, trying to look normal, and probably looking like scared little bunnies. My mother noticed something was up, but had household shopping to contend with. We needed a story. We decided to tell her that my brother ‘fell’ onto the doors, it was the best story we could come up with at the time. Amazingly, she bought it. My father on the other hand, didn’t buy it, but due to my parents being freshly divorced it didn’t bother him. He fixed the doors and we spent weeks wondering if they knew what really happened. After a month we rejoiced silently and told all our other friends about it.

A few years went by and one day I decided to tell my father about it for a laugh. He said he knew something was up, but never thought it would be something that ridiculous. I told my mother soon after my father and she laughed about it. Which is strange. If we had told her straight after it happened she would have made us write 500 pages of lines saying “I will never blow up a deodorant can again” (my parents never grounded, the were lines kind of people), but give it a few years and it’s a funny story to tell at Christmas.

We learnt an important lesson on that boring Sunday afternoon: never doubt the warnings on sides of cans, they do not lie, and they really will explode after about 30 minutes of intense heat.

46 Comments

  1. Rachael says:

    Yeah. We used to spray it on our arms and light it (headcases). It never hurt til the deoderant ran out and then you had to slap your arm to put out the little flames on your arm hairs! But then a guy got his face burnt when one exploded on him and almost died.

    DON’T PLAY WITH FIRE KIDDIES!

    Like

  2. Rachael says:

    I wouldn’t usually post two comments but I hate looking dense- *deodorant 😛

    Like

  3. hexley says:

    This is pretty good retro entry. Reminds me of the days back when I was a stupid kid and would test everything just for the sake of finding things out. Luckily for me, nothing ever super bad happened to me. I mean there are couple of close ones, like a fire cracker exploding in my hand and stuff like that (my hands hurt for a week or so). But nothing major like broken arms or shit like that. Maybe it’s just dumb luck or something.

    Anyways, good entry, and I am glad that you guys all did fine, and Kitta’s pretty face didn’t get all scratched up. Hmm, but maybe that will help you create a badass look. You know gangster girl look, and some people dig that. =)

    BTW, did you guys ever find the metal pieces of the can or the can itself? I find it hard to believe that the metal peices vanished into thin air. Well, if it exploded into pieces, it’s not likely the people in garage got away without damage. Or maybe the pieces would have got stuck in the wall. My guess is that the explosion propelled the can somewhere. Interesting, Aussie deodorant are in metal cans? Most of our deodorant here in US are stick like in plastic containers.

    Like

  4. Tom says:

    Ok I never posted a comment before but that was a good story! lol what a great idea!

    Like

  5. kenny says:

    compressed cans like that make good flame throwers, as i found out .

    in the process, i set fire to parts of the garage, the door, some flowers and my thumb.

    i think there is a lesson here.

    😉

    Like

  6. Malach says:

    Ha. I’m not reading all of that.

    Like

  7. stu says:

    kitta,,, have you seen the film Jack Ass, where a load of guys do silly things and get hurt and think its funny, your blogg just reminded me of that film

    Like

  8. I give the story and the comments five out of five stars *****.
    You retro’d pretty entertaining. 🙂

    Like

  9. Lyra says:

    Thanks for the warning 😉

    Like

  10. Snyke says:

    Wow I finally know what to do when I’m bored: ignore all warnings and go for it 🙂

    Like

  11. Ed says:

    One day, a couple of my friends and I decided we would throw some dynamite into a pond to see what would happen. (this was back when kids could do this sort of thing without being called terrorists) The pond wasn’t very big, maybe 10 meters across and 2 meters deep. We decided that 5 or 6 sticks of dynamite ought to do the trick. (uh-oh) We fastened the dynamite together with a couple of bricks (we wanted to make sure the whole assembly would sink to the bottom) lit the fuse, heaved the package into the pond and ran like our asses were on fire. It seemed like a small eternity until…BOOM!!!! It worked. Water, mud, fish, turtles, snakes and whatever else was in the pond was now scattered all over the countryside. The pond was nearly EMPTY! (and a little bit deeper than it was to start with) About all that was left was a crater with a little bit of water. Our little experiment was a complete success.
    KIDS: DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME !

    Like

  12. Stacy says:

    Oh goodness, that is frightening! I would never have the guts to do anything like that!

    Like

  13. victor says:

    “I will never blow up a deodorant can again”
    “I will never blow up a deodorant can again”
    “I will never blow up a deodorant can again”
    “I will never blow up a deodorant can again”
    “I will never blow up a deodorant can again”
    “I will never blow up a deodorant can again”
    “I will never blow up a deodorant can again”…….haha

    Like

  14. victor says:

    just like this:

    person 1: don’t ever push THAT RED BUTTON
    person 2: yeah :@
    person 1: ok
    person 2’s inner voice: c’mon u realy want to
    person 2: haha it wasnt me… it was my inner voice…. so cant be so bad

    after that…..
    …….
    ………. {¬.¬} haha BUUUUUM

    Like

  15. Bob says:

    Amazing that we make through our childhood isn’t it….

    Like

  16. dan says:

    that wasn’t smart thing to do!!! they could have been flying meatel and burns form metal. bord or not you have to think before you do, even at 15 or so of age

    Like

  17. karolina says:

    Wow, that sounds like fun.

    I’m not getting any ideas 8)

    Like

  18. victor says:

    at 14 of age… it was 6 years ago

    Like

  19. chuckg says:

    Sounds surprisingly like my cousins and I using roman candles to play tag with each other in a dried out field of hay. Not only can a roman candle scorch beautiful young faces, but we always had a riot putting out the small hay fires we set.

    Like

  20. ggb says:

    lol woah you guys are crazy…yeah hot shrapnal (sp?)…but I can’t say I didn’t do my share of stupid things…my friend spill some gas from the pump at the gas station and tried to light it with a lighter on the ground…stupid lol

    oo B&W just out of the shower hotness!

    damn, I forgot how young our kitta is…thanks victor! lol *faint*

    Like

  21. Ella says:

    I was wnodering where that post was going to start with.. I was hoping you weren’t going to test the ‘not for intimate hygiene use’ warning HAHA
    By the way, the stuff rawks!!!!

    Like

  22. strobe says:

    Heh! This reminds me of the stuff we used to do in high school. We had a very similar experience mixing liquid draino and aluminum in a large glass bottle.

    We had been warned not to do it, but we gave it a try anyway. After nearly 20 minutes of hiding behind a pillow nothing happened, so we gave up. About ten minutes later, while watching TV — BOOOM! Glass, Draino, and tin foil was everywhere and we were in complete awe of the explosion. While trying to figure out how to find the glass on the bottom of the pool, our neighbor threatened to call the bomb squad on us!! We learned our lesson quick.

    — Craig
    http://www.poletown.com

    Like

  23. R&C's Dildo says:

    LOL!! You stupid fucktards!! If I were your father, I would have spanked you!! Yes, spanked you. Then I would have spanked you some more… and then I would kiss your boo boo & then spanked you some more!! Yesh… did I mention that I would spank you?! 😉
    Heh, I really should visit your site more often! Ciao kiddo

    Like

  24. Kitta says:

    Rachael, some girls at my high school used to do the ‘spray the arm and light it’ thing. And the guys all used to inhale deodorant through a shirt and then put a lighter near their mouth and breathe fire. Back then it was cool, now it seems kind of dumb. I think they banned deodorant cans at a lot of schools here, kids were just being pyros with them during lunch break.

    Hexley, no we never found the metal pieces, or the plastic top of the can. The garage did have a lot of stuff in it though, including a lot of my dads scrap metal that he hadn’t picked up yet. I’m amazed no one was hurt either; apparently they were all quite close to it when it happened. One of our friends couldn’t hear too well afterwards. And yes, Aussie deodorant is in metal cans.

    Kenny, yeah we used them as flame throwers all the time. There are just so many uses for it!

    Ed, I’m kind of glad my brother and I never had access to any dynamite like you did. Funny story by the way, I can just imagine you trying to explain that to your parents. “I know it looks bad, with the dead snakes and all, but it’s not.”

    Bob, yes it is. My brother and I were always playing with fire and we never once got hurt, we’re lucky I guess.

    Dan, I was 13 at the time (about month away from my 14th birthday) and we were kids. Kids never know better, they just know that blowing things up is kind of cool. We did learn a lesson that day and stoped blowing things up shortly after that.

    Strobe, I love how you left it and went to watch TV, sounds like something I’d do back then. “Bugger this, Ren & Stimpy are on!”

    R&C, Ahh ok. Do you have a bit of a spanking fantasy there?

    I’m glad you all like my retro entries; I really enjoy writing it down and remembering the past.

    Like

  25. John says:

    Funny story, very funny reading. I would think that hearing it would be even better, more drama and so forth. Ever consider making audio blog posts?

    Like

  26. Steve says:

    you can do that blowing fire thing with just a lighter if you let out the gas into your mouth without igniting it. Plus you should do these things outside in a field or something.

    Like

  27. R&C's Dildo says:

    Only for you Kitta 😉 you naughty gerl you!

    Like

  28. Dan says:

    Thats good Kitta, know you just a “normal” young landy :))) yea after that post I thought it over and I guess we all did do stuff like that. At 10- 11 years old we use to have Barbie and GI Joe having sex in different postions and some times Ken join in “hmmmmm!!!” But that then and I guess that was little sick at that at age, but boys will be boys I guess. I guess I was little harush with I was tinking like a perent over 40 and for got the thinks we did back then as kids. But, we did nothing like that. I glad everyone was ok and noone got hurt.

    Kitta, I am an Artist work in oil, Pastel and charcaol I would like to do a portrait in oil of you if you like you can Email me.

    Dan

    Dan

    Like

  29. Dan says:

    woops sorry about the typos kitta 🙂

    Like

  30. victor says:

    ¬¬ haha… more retro entries!!!

    Like

  31. Ed says:

    Hey Kitta, Glad you enjoyed the story. I enjoyed your story too. Someday, I’ll tell you about the golf ball cannon. Hint…Lots of broken windows.

    Like

  32. Ed says:

    or maybe…the time we set the neighbor’s house on fire AND put the fire out, before he even noticed.

    Like

  33. mel says:

    good stuff!

    Like

  34. stu says:

    hey kitta, thats a nice cam pic you have right now, sort of a cheecky seductive lusty look about it, love it

    Like

  35. Bekah says:

    awesome, that waz a cool random storee
    me likie

    Like

  36. Vallonzpah says:

    You ought to give your fans the privilege of keeping in touch via RSS feeds! Really!

    It’s a pain in the a** to keep visiting. I mostly forget, too.

    Like

  37. Kitta says:

    I already do, the RSS information used to be in the side bar until a few days ago when I made some changes and now it’s located in the ‘more’ section here: https://kitta.net/more.php

    Like

  38. Becki says:

    Lmao! What a fucken funny story!

    Like

  39. victor says:

    i wish you lived around here kitta

    Like

  40. Rachel says:

    Haha nice. My friends and I have done that before. Although, we did it outside and placed the deoderant can on top of a lit Jiffy firelighter, which did the trick in about 5 minutes. It shot into someone’s fence and dented it. Not as fun as almost blowing up the garage I guess ;D

    Like

  41. Kris says:

    hahahaha

    Like

  42. compound goose says:

    hmm nice! ive heard that if you tape the button down on a deoderent can and light it then after a while itll blow up? tried this earlier and the fuse went out…. and ive severly buggered my back jumping over a fence to get away fom it lol oh yeah btw here in the UK the deoderent cans or airosols in general are in metal cans. as for the flamethrower thing ive tried pretty much every deoderent in existance, best ive come across is lynx dry once youve got it lit, but having said that the xl sure for women cans make nice flamethrowers (stole my aunts) the sure ended up in my aunts toilet going alight in a big way (my greatest moment)

    Like

  43. James says:

    Hey, Excellent read. I decided to google search for exlploding deoderant cans after just blowing one up on a bonfire I made. If you tape 5 cans of deoderant to a butane can wrap this in tissue then throw it on hot coals it take around 30 seconds for it explode into a huge fireball with an intense bang.
    Yes 30 seconds not minutes 🙂
    Great fun.
    Play safe kids.

    Like

  44. Jason says:

    Haha, that’s funny. One time, I took a breath spray thing, took out a cig lighter (I don’t smoke; it was just sitting there), and sprayed the breath stuff right next to the flame. It made a river of fire about 3 feet long. It was awesome 🙂

    Like

  45. Charlie says:

    O come on guys! Me and my mates got a small bonfire going in a wood and then threw on a deoderant can. It takes about 30 secs to burn through and the explosion and bang is nice! 30 minutes my ass! Build a bigger bonfire!

    Like

  46. Kitta says:

    Charlie: I have also thrown a few deodorant cans into a bonfire and they do indeed explode after about 30 seconds. The difference is the intensity of the heat. We applied a very small amount of heat to the can in the garage, so it took a long time to penetrate the can. If we had of built a large fire, as you suggested, we would have burnt the garage and possibly the house down.

    Like

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