Stick matches

I think one of the most versatile items I remember as a kid was the Kitchen stick match. When they first were invented some folks called them ‘Lucifers’.

If you could swing your arm hard enough, maybe like a pitcher throwing a 100mph ball, you could throw the match on concrete and it would pop like a small fire cracker. 

If you could not throw it, you could slip one down the muzzle of your Daisy Air Rifle and shoot it against a brick wall and get the pop. If you  were going camping and wanted water proof matches you could sneak your sister’s clear fingernail polish and paint your matches, instant waterproof.

The match after cutting the white tip off made a great dart. You cut the top off strait pins (Needles worked best, but mama really frowned on that) but holding the pin with a pair of pliers you could carefully push it up into the match stick. then with a single edge razor blade split the other end and insert  two pieces of paper about 1” long and 1/4” wide and fold the out at 90 degrees. to make the wings. They worked like a charm for indoor winter games.

      

With two bolts and one nut using the heads you cut off the stick match, you had a fire cracker. Fireworks were illegal in NC, but this was our replacement.

 

Mama saved her match sticks, most were still long enough to make little log cabins and little pieces of furniture. I loved stick matches.

The pictures I got off the internet. I made very simple little houses. I couldn’t  dream of these huge creations.

I miss the stick, lucifer.

Did you use the stick match to form a toy, or to pass the time?

Nite Shipslog.

PS:

Kids are ingenious, if left to find something to do.

 

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Models with sticks

Covered with match sticks.