Lio by Mark Tatulli for December 11, 2019

It it were a model of KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand of “Knight Rider” with David Hasselhoff), I think it would withstand the fire crackers’ blast.

Well, it’s time spent together that matters

Gotta love this kid!

Lio’s Dad: “Why did I even bother?”

That was always the best part of the project….!!!

Learned that from Cousin Pugsley?

Ahhhhhhh….poor dad….he tries so hard to be a dad….

Am I mistaken or does that car look somewhat like the one driven by Thelma and Louise?

Well dad, the 3 hrs. spent with your child are priceless.

Dad: “Well, it was fun while it lasted!”

I loved to build things and would build models as a kid. But I had no use for them once built. Luckily my brother would trash them and then my parents would buy more for me to build. My biggest, which I did later in life while apartment sitting was a 30" wooden Constitution ship model. I left it at the place and my friend said if I didn’t get it, the landlord’s kid would wreck it. I told him to give it to the kid, I was done with it. He couldn’t believe it. I have built most of my furniture, that I do use.

This is exactly what my brothers and I did with the (many, many) model airplanes we built back in the day. We ran a wire from the attic to the ground, load the planes with fireworks, lit them and sent them down the wire. Many beautiful explosions.

my brother and I used to do this with models of ships. only we used cherry bombs. BOOM!!

I staged car accidents, Play-Doh made fine crumpled bumpers. lol

Made a model airplane with my son pretty recently. It was a great experience for us. He loved it more when he crashed it on purpose.

It’s a lesson about the ephemeral nature of art.

Fire Crackers seem a little too tame for Lio.

Ok, dad. Go back to sniffing glue.

Balsa wood gliders and firecrackers. Aw, to be 12 again.

It’s been said that you can’t fix stupid. Face it, dad. You can’t fix brat, either.

I do recall the joy of doing this.

No no no. You built halfway, then build other half with firecracker in the heart of the car. I did. Glorious explosion!

I reenacted the sinking of the Bismark that way.

So my idea that McDonald’s should have made a happy meal with break-apart ship, lifeboats, and an iceberg to capitalize on the success of the movie “Titanic” wasn’t all that crazy after all!

My brother did this. All that work and then blow it up. Sigh! But he did photograph the disaster area.

Good prep for a career as a movie model maker…

Differing priorities. I’d be on Dad’s side here, appreciating the fine achievement in the finished model.

But for a feisty young boy like Lio, using it simply as a disposable transport for lit firecrackers makes its own noisy sense….

I took pride in building and flying model rockets. Then I’d find out somebody else would just slap a rocket together, fly it with no parachute or landing gear, not bother to retrieve it.