Fireworks Excitement

1) What are your earliest memories of watching fireworks?
My early memories are kind of foggy, but I do remember my parents driving my family to a park where we watched fireworks.

2) Were you more afraid or excited at the time?
Fireworks have always been exciting for me.

3) What occasions were celebrated with watching fireworks?
Independence Day, Labor Day and New Years Eve.

4) Did you travel to fireworks shows, or did your family have their own, safe and sane explosives?
When I was really young, my family drove to fireworks shows.  I had punks, snakes and sparklers as a kid, which were pretty safe.

5) Did you ever light off illegal fireworks?
Around the age of 10, every kid in my neighborhood had their own fireworks, which included fire crackers, poppers, bottle rockets, ash cans, cherry bombs and M-80s.  I lived in Staten Island and everyone there was a transplant from Brooklyn or the Bronx and this was normal for everyone.  The guy on the ice cream truck sold them to the kids.  The whole block was filled with smoke, but I don’t remember anyone ever getting hurt.  I did get hurt on the 5th of July, as we always went out to look for the duds, the ones that didn’t explode.  We would break the ash cans apart and light them off with our punks and watch the powder shoot out of them.  I found this ash can and my punk had already gone out, so I decided to light it with a match and the flames burnt my thumb and it hurt for at least a week, but I didn’t suffer any permanent damage.

6) Did you typically have a family celebration before the nighttime display? What did it include?
My nephew was born on the 4th of July, so we always celebrated that with a cookout.

7) As you grew older, did your feelings about fireworks change?
After I moved out of Staten Island to New Jersey, fireworks were not as easy to get, and I used to go to China Town to purchase them.  I had to give my money to a person who told me to wait in a certain spot and that he would come back with my stuff and a couple of times the guy never came back, so that was disappointing.  It has become too much trouble with worrying about neighbors that think their house is going to be set on fire or having the police come around, that a lot of the fun has been sucked out of having my own fireworks, so I don’t get them anymore.  I still think that they are fun, but I can do without them.

8) Now the thinker: Many places are restricting fireworks now because of the trauma it can cause to pets, young children, and sensitive adults. How do you feel about restricting fireworks?
I live in Florida now and people around here seem to be shooting them off all the time.  Our Governor Ron DeSantis made it legal for adults over 18 to shoot off larger aerial fireworks, Roman candles, bottle rockets and other pyrotechnics.  I can hear the fireworks being shot off at Disney every night.  I see them being sold in the supermarkets and there are road side stands that also sell them.  I see this as being a lot like guns, as people are going to have them and shoot them off no matter what the laws are.

Written for Throwback Thursday #44 which is hosted by Lauren and Maggie and this week it is Lauren’s turn and her topic is “Fireworks Celebrations”.