Well it's not a very long story and I was a lot younger and a bit more defiant.
This cannon was in the basement closet of the house my mother bought when I was about 11 years old.
I remember there were some welding rods in that closet too. I thought they were sparklers and tried to get them to light ...haha.
A cannon makes a very distinct sound in the middle of a frozen pond when its about 10 degrees out
with that cold dry air.
We weren't shooting anything, Just wadding. That cannon was only about 16 inches long.
With something like a one inch bore, It was really heavy for a small cannon as I remember.
It had a base with wheels but the wheels did not roll as I remember.
It might have been a bit smaller,(probably) but seemed pretty big as a kid.
and you had to go find it after firing it off sometimes.
Sometimes it would go flying straight backwards and be buried in a snow drift .
sometimes it would go flipping thru the air.
It's a wonder none of us ever got killed with that thing, Boy, it was loud!!!The last load was always the loudest
because there was never really enough powder for 2 charges, but always enough for one big one.
Well short story even shorter, we were warned. Some one said "ONE MORE TIME AND i'M CALLING THE COPS !"
and of course we had that one oversize charge left. so we touched it off and just after that, the green snowmobile came and that was the end of that cannon. Never got another cannon. I also know someone else who had a cannon taken away, also in the winter while out on the lake ice fishing, I think Game wardens collect cannons and that's probably why he took it.