Hot footing it out of there!!!
As a kid, all things flammable were interesting.

One summer holiday we went rummaging about in some abandoned garages and found a petrol tin which still had a litre or so of fuel sloshing round in it.

After much discussion about how best to utilise our new discovery, we decided on smoking the moles out of their molehills from the field outside.

So, we traipsed across to the molehills, used a stick to dig down to the tunnel under the mound of earth and then poured a little petrol into each one.

After sharing out the matches, we struck and lit the petrol. Totally unimpressed with the lack of 20 foot high fireballs, we watched the small flames flickering away, resigning ourselves that we weren't going to be getting any moles out of those holes.

Next thing we heard was ashout from the top of the field....THE FARMER!!! I shouted to the others. This farmer was one for the old 12 guage double barrel rock salt punishment and was heading rapidly down the field towards us.

Trying to destroy the evidence I stamped out the flames and legged it in true 'bomb burst' fashion away from the others. (The thinking being, if you get caught, you dont grass on the others and they will do the same for you!).

I get no more than 10 yards before realising my shoes were on fire and the cheap plastic bits on them was melting through my socks to my feet. Panicking, I ripped them off and threw them into the stream before making off in my bare feet!

My poor mind had not worked out that liquid (petrol) plus soft soil (molehills) equals mud!.....mud that sticks to things and stays burning!

I didnt get caught off the farmer, but I got the hiding of my life off my mother when she caught me with scorched feet. She had a penchant for using bamboo canes for whipping me with (this wasnt China either, this was North East England, mid 1980s!) but at least the pain from all the open weals on my arms and legs took my mind off my singed feet!
(indigo_prime, Thu 20 Dec 2007, 12:58, 1 reply)

My stepdad used to use those
The green ones? I can still remember the sting now O_o
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Fri 21 Dec 2007, 12:59, closed)