OT: Home fireworks displays

gammanu95
You can unfriend me, unfollow me, and unlike me; but you cannot unlick my butthole
I love fireworks. I grew up in IL where, every year, more and more restrictions were placed on fireworks. When I was young, we had witch's whistles and even in high school I could still by the ones that simply spun and shot up into the air. By the time I graduated college, you were lucky to find snakes and sparklers. The evening news would lead with local PD bragging about confiscating little bottle rockets or Chinese firecrackers. We would drive to IN and load up with illegal fireworks, and then try not to get caught. Never did.

When I moved to NOLA and later FL, I spent hundreds of dollars annually on fireworks - mortars, spinning fireballs, etc. However, the dog I rescued in 2011 hated fireworks. The second dog we adopted in 2015 hated them even more. They would cry and whine horrifically when I went out into the backyard to light them off. Now, even though we're spread out by a couple of acres, everyone around me has multiple dogs, most medium - large in size, who all lose their minds with fireworks. Add in the slight the drought, an area prone to brush fires with lots of FL pine scrub, and I decided to pass on buying fireworks this year. Then they cancelled all fireworks displays. I am still not going to be "that guy" setting off mortars, disturbing your calm, setting off your dogs, and risking a local brush fire; but this Independence Day will just have to be marked with some world class grilling.

Local news this morning, though, has reported record fireworks sales in response to the cancelled city shows AND the governor's order making fireworks legal only on a select couple of days. I think I'll get quite a show, regardless, and will just have to hope noone's dogs panic themselves to injury. Where's the rest of the board on home fireworks displays?

8 comments

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crosscheck
4 years ago
Went up to New Hampshire last weekend with my brother and bought a bunch. Of course they're illegal in Massachusetts (no surprise there). I'm not worried. We'll show my niece and nephew a good time on the 4th.
rickdugan
4 years ago
Honestly I didn't even realize that they were illegal in FL on any day until I saw this. If it was ever illegal on those days nobody ever enforced it. Every July 4th and New Year's Eve for the past 8 years I've been here the fireworks are going nonstop from dusk until midnight. Even the police officers living close to our neighborhoods joined in. Neighbors compete against each other to put on the best display and I suspect that at least one bastard in my housing community has a hookup with a professional company.

You live and you learn I suppose. That's the beauty of living down here. Unlike the Nanny States, here the police are in no hurry to try to micromanage the behaviors of others, at least in the county I live in.
Warrior15
4 years ago
I'll be sitting on the balcony of my 17th floor condo building. I have a great view of the city and see thousands of individuals shooting them off.

RTP
4 years ago
I used to have my own show that I set off our dock on a lake in New Jersey. I had been around fireworks all my life, so I was far from inexperienced, but all Fireworks can be dangerous. One year I got a some fireworks from a licensed Pyrotechnic that I know, they may have been my best ever.
In the middle of my show, an ember landed on the cover of my neighbor's boat which I did not notice until the flames were fairly high. I got it out quickly, but just about then the local police showed up, We thought we were good friends with this neighbor, his wife was right in the policeman's face saying what a menace to society (and her dog) I was. Fortunately her husband was not quite as upset and it did not become a larger police incident. I did end up with a bill of about $2500 for a new boat cover and some carpeting and my fireworks were confiscated, but that was the end of fireworks shows. I now just enjoy all the other private shows which go on around the lake for about 2 weeks around the 4th of July.
doctorevil
4 years ago
The U.S. Army puts on the best fireworks shows. Nothing beats watching a C-RAM blast 4,500 rounds per minute of high explosive tracers into the sky to intercept incoming missiles. https://www.military.com/video/defense-s…
623
4 years ago
I don’t quite get the thrill of lighting my own fireworks when there are so many others to be watched but this year I’m gonna take $500 out to the street and set it on fire at 10:00pm. I bet the feeling will be exactly the same, I’ll let you know.
gammanu95
4 years ago
Fun fact: burning money is a federal crime. Legal tender is property of the US Treasury, and not the individual bearing (or burning) it.
ATACdawg
4 years ago
When I was a stupid kid 400 years ago, we had real fireworks - I'm talking 3" and 4" 'Cannon Crackers". These things had real power. One of the neighbor kids' father owned a welding shop and had built his son a muzzle loading cannon which we put to good use in one of the many vacant lots that we're still available. That thing could sling a good sized dirt bomb from the back of the lot damn near to the road.

You could total flatten out a tin can with one.

One game we used to play as a test of "manhood" was to pinch a "lady finger" between thumb and forefinger and light the fuse; if you held it very tight, it would flare out the end. If you didn't, owww. Somehow, I still have all of my fingers intact, lol, smh.

Most exiting thing I saw was at the local marina in Dunkirk, NY. They had a great fireworks display every July 4th, and had a team of pros come in to put them on. One particular rocket must have had a crack in the casing, because it only rose 15 feet before it detonated with a huge boom, sending the personnel scrambling for cover.💣💥
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