Boy Scout Jamboree is held at local arsenal that produces mortars and other neat things for the Army. At the tank exercise bivouac, complete with recent tread marks and mud. MY patrol decides that its two demos will be Model Rocketry and a lashed 20 foot tower, no nails.
Ten or so Army ordinance officers are walking up the muddy hill to the field in pristine dress uniforms, ready to judge the presentations. Large model rocket "Big Bertha" launches out of our site, noses over at about 50 feet and heads a half mile down range with a serious hissing whoosh! It had rained for hours the night before. Hear Army shout "cover, cover" and dive left and right into deep mud... Said rocket might have just had a 14 year old's latest engine design in it... After Army is done retreating to don cammies, guess who's troop took first place...
Home made image conversion night vision at 15, PID Loops controlling the Hene Laser scanner at 16, and the TRS-80 controlled the Christmas lights one year...
Biked fourteen miles round trip way to the University science library in the summers, librarians noted very quiet, way underage, very polite student tearing through EE journals and photocopying circuits to build. Chief Librarian arranges unheard of "Guest Card" for said kid... Tells me she'll see me there in a few years. I attend her retirement as a permanent Staff member in College of Engineering... Go figure..
A certain religious group in the US known for proselytizing door to door is visiting the house in the summer. I come upstairs in full protective gear at age 14 or so to tell Mom to ignore the large bang that is incoming shortly. Leader of said group says "What a wonderful, polite, child, telling you he is about to do that." Then hastily retreats with his group at about Mach One, out the front door. The large balloon goes up, literally, right about the time they reach the mailbox. It was not malicious, I just would not let anything get in the way of the Saturday afternoon experiment schedule. Look on their face, priceless. Those City Dwellers just were not prepared for country life. Hope God forgives me for the shock waves..
* Note for the powers that be, at "Homelab InSecurity"(tm), Energetic materials went out of my life a long time ago. Getting paid to make lab equipment, maintain lasers, help graduate students, and to create active Nanomaterials for wound healing is a lot more fun.
Steve