Could you really buy dynamite in a hardware store?

[Frank]

I'm watching "Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World" and the scene where Sid Caesar is about to blow a hole in the wall with a couple of sticks of dynamite they found inside the hardware store they got locked in.

Could you seriously walk into a hardware store in 1963 and purchase dynamite?

[Chillylulu]

Because of mining it was pretty common here in Colorado.  Still a problem in some mining towns.  People would buy their dynamite, and to keep it cool they would stick it under the floorboards on their house /shack. It sits around for years or decades and the nitroglycerin starts to leak out.

I asked a fire chief what they did when he told me about the problem in relation to fighting fires.  He said "We send the rookies into old houses."

Chilly

[HeelSpur]

I have a 1900 Sears Roebuck and Co. catalog and I gave it a quick run thru, but didn't see any dynamite.
Anything else you want is in it.

[john k]

I know in the late 50s the local hardware had dynamite, by the case or by the stick.  Plus the little tins of blasting caps.  I don't think it was til the 70s that one needed a permit from the Sheriff to purchase it.  Grandfather and uncles blew a lot of stumps clearing land.  Times have changed haven't they?

[scottg]

 I guess I expect it to still be available at certain places. As far as I know/remember it was always available. 
   
  But it was never "out front" under the control of a 16 year old kid with pimples, working the counter in the Grainge Co-Op or whatever.
  If you wanted to buy dynamite, there were always the stern eyebrows of the senior manager who would want to know exactly what you had in mind, involved in any dynamite sale.   You better be serious and very sober and be able to explain yourself very clearly, if you expected to buy dynamite in the places I am familiar with.
  Mel Brooks would easily be smart enough, but I am not entirely sure he could have put on the proper demeanor.  Maybe he could have. I didn't know him personally.
 
 
 
 Government documents may be involved now, but frankly I don't trust them as much as the old system. While you do hear stories of fools with dynamite, those stories are few and far between.

   I wouldn't be surprised if it was about to get worse instead of better.
 Fooling lowly paid gov clerks (to get permits) is never that hard.
Getting past the old man in the back room? Nobody did that easy. 
       yours Scott
     

[international3414]

i know my uncle(born 1915) used some,he had the old plunger detonator in-cased in wood...i herd his story many times,about deposing of old dynamite and ammo...threw it in the lake...yep!

[Nolatoolguy]

For as long as I can remember you cant get dynamite in the local hardware store.....oh wait that's not going back to many years.

I would be more worried of these smart science people or ordinary people reading stuff on the internet. A kid who I went to school with bragged about the things he could do with ordinary household things. I have no idea if any of the stuff he said was true,  but a few days later he was arrested.

[EVILDR235]

I remember the town i grew up in had 3 major hardware stores. All sold dynamite. It was right by the front door in a locked plywood box painted red and marked exploseves. I was told is was by the front door so it could be removed fast in case of a fire. Then all that radical hippie crap started and it was to easy of a target for theft, so it was taken elsewhere.

EvilDr235

[Batz]

Up until the 1960's dynamite was sold in rural hardware stores across Australia. 

[bear_man]

I dunno about "radical hippie stuff," but a neighbor of mine in northern New Mexico was digging a well and hit solid sheets of sandtone — I think that was 1976.  We were both long-haired (I still am) and the nearest dealer was about two hours away well-outside Santa Fe.  The business was out of semi-trailers.  We walked in, talked with the boss for awhile about what we were doing and he fixed us right up with what we needed (which I remember thinking was more than we'd anticipated).  No muss, no fuss, no documents.
     In the 80's a client wanted a full-sized basement beneath a timber-frame home and a former highway blast-man taught me how to crack some sheet limestone into JUST the right-sized chunks.  Again, the sticks came from that same out-of-the-back-of-semi-trailer boxes and again, no muss, and so on.  Here in ID old stocks of the blooey are sometimes found near old "glory holes" (mines).

[Chillylulu]

I would be more worried of these smart science people or ordinary people reading stuff on the internet.

The chemicals are readily available to make explosives. Luckily, most people still have common sense and only mess with this type of thing when they really need it.

I think making it a little hard to get is ok. Kind of like guns and other dangerous things.  My only problem is when we or our leaders get extreme in limiting anythings use. Its usually a knee jerk reaction by well meaning people, but there are always unintended consequences.

I liked to hear about responsible hardware store managers.  Our best bet for safety are our own knowledgeable people. But some reckless idiot or officious person messes it up for the rest of us.

Oh well.......

[skipskip]

A kid who I went to school with bragged about the things he could do with ordinary household things. I have no idea if any of the stuff he said was true,  but a few days later he was arrested.

That's the BEST post I have seen in weeks!!

thanks

[bear_man]

I can't help but give out with an enthusiastic baring-teeth grin at Chilly's post.  Ayep!