I'm old enough so that, as a child, I made black powder from components I purchased at the local drug store. My friends and I would stop in for a chocolate malt and a burger, $0.25 each. Then we would buy sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter from the pharmacist, no questions asked 'cause it was not against any law, at least none that we or the pharmacist were aware of.
We simply mixed the components together with no attempt to further process them, so we were unable to make effective bombs. But we sure did burn a lot of it and we did make some rocket powered model cars, limited by our ability to make an effective nozzle.
Then a friend came into possession of a 25 pound tin of zinc dust and we forgot about black powder. We immediately and went whole hog in the direction of making bombs and cannons, with good success. The spice of danger was intoxicating, but we were smart enough not to do something really stupid, at least as far as safety was concerned.
Our legal precautions were not so well thought-out and after little incident involving a mail box and a run-in with the FBI, we cooled our interest in bomb making and concentrated on under age drinking and chasing girls.
Don't believe anyone who says the "good old days" weren't all that good. They were fantastic..................... for those who survived.