As a child, growing up outside Chicago, the "4th" quickly became a much expected event during the early year. From dawn till dusk, and beyond, innumerable reports were heard constantly from sources unimaginable to the young mind. The earliest of the day, in Berwyn, Illinois, were distant very concussive "thumps", beginning at 6:AM. They were spaced about 10 or 20 seconds apart, (reloading time, per my Mother). An old cannon in a City Park was used to fire 21 times. I longed as a kid to find out more about it, but never did (just as I missed out on the final episodes of "The Cinnamon Bear" at Christmastime, another story and time). My peers seemed to always have firecrackers and such, maybe beginning age 10 or so. I learned through ads fireworks could be ordered by "mail", Railway Express Agency, actually, delivered them. Having one such ad in hand, I hurried down to the newly-opened "Currency Exchange", a store-front business unlike to me, any of the others, the restaurants, fruit & vegetable stores, bike shop, and the like. The Currency Exchange happily took my money, and issued the needed "jack". Couple weeks later, REA dropped a big box of goodies at our front door. It was the (gasp) "Family Assortment", containing lots of firecrackers, fountains, aerial bombs, Roman Candles, Skyrockets, the stuff kids' dreams dwell upon!! The evening of the 4th. that year proved to be wonderful. My Mother frowned upon these activities by a son too young, no doubt. My Dad was as usual difficult to "read". At that time I would estimate that at least 75% of the folks in the neighborhood fired some kind of salutes, whether fireworks or firearms. (In later years, I used my .30-06). There was shooting continually, town-wide. Next year, my mother, determined in her own attempts to ensure my safety, glommed my fireworks assortment after it arrived, while I was in school, and placed a bunch of the choice pieces in buckets of water! It was after that I endeavored to begin making my own. 2nd. degree burns of face and hand at 14, 8th grade. A life-changing event. Before, I was well-liked; after, I was "Frankenstein". The Feds intervened over public safety concerns maybe in the '70s, and limited exploding power in any "Common Fireworks" sold to the public to something like 100mg. of powder. Whether that helped reduce the "death and maiming" of folks by fireworks I don't know. Point is, today, the trend is to return the control of safety and use of fireworks to the adult individual, but why, I don't know. Political reasons, no doubt. Gosh, dang, we can again buy and use fireworks! (At least in AZ). Frank
We have the fireworks here for the traditional new year celebration. There is brisk sales of fireworks and firecrackers even before Christmas. However, there were so many cases of unintentional exploding in the stores so the government had imposed strict regulations. Making matters worse are the illegal firecrackers that look like bombs with the excessive amount of gunpowder. Worse, there are small firecrackers called piccolo which are used by children. Think of the danger to those kids when that small firecracker would explode. By the way, I know of several persons who had lost a finger or two because of the firecrackers. The new president of the country was successful in banning fireworks and firecrackers in his city down south. Maybe he would also ban those explosives in the entire country this coming new year.
I haven't seen a follow up report to the explosion in Central Park, but will look for one later. From the initial reports, the guy's friends (the victim is 19) and witnesses state that he stepped on a rock or similar object, and it exploded, taking off at least part of his left foot. The friends state they did not have any fireworks with them. It's a shame when a great holiday like Independence Day is ruined in such a way. Hopefully the person placing the object there was doing so in an attempt to be festive, but it seems an odd thing to do, unless the person has mayhem in mind. There were fireworks here all day yesterday and last night, and today will probably be the same. Hopefully I can catch some of the more colorful ones this evening, and maybe even get a picture or two.
Certain fireworks are legal here but I'm not sure which ones. They're not cheap either but some of the money goes to the schools I think. Every year since I can remember even as a child someone has been hurt or killed by fireworks so I'm not a big fan.
In the '70s, living in Vegas, (Clark County), fireworks were strictly illegal. Over the county line in Pahrump, Nye County I think it is, every year before the 4th. ads in the Vegas papers announced sale of fireworks there, where it was legal, the sales operation being managed by the Pahrump Volunteer Fire Department, which augmented their budget with the profits. So folks in Vegas drove over the scenic mountain route to Pahrump, skirting Mt. Potosi, beautiful treed area, if they chose to have fireworks in Vegas! Mt. Potosi is the site of the crash of actress Carole Lombard's plane, I think in 1941. She was Clark Gable's wife. Frank
I had one go off in my hand when i was a kid. never touched em again also kinda late for this but former combat vets with PTSD have problems with fireworks KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- As the Independence Day holiday approaches--fireworks stands are open and fireworks are already being set off, which some in the metro say they find annoying. But it's more than annoying for some military veterans. One local family wants to remind everyone to celebrate responsibly. story
Animals also have difficulty with fireworks. I'm up because one of mine has been on alert for several days. The others aren't much bothered by them, because the next city over sets them off every weekend, but the people here in the neighborhood love setting off the really loud ones all over the place, and it's difficult to predict when or where, and she is jumpy on a good day. Thankfully, it doesn't appear there were any incidents, although apparently two new guys to the neighborhood were arrested the other night for DUI down at the beach. I would imagine that isn't going to go over well with whichever branch of the military they're in. Hope everyone had a nice 4th!