The topic of fireworks comes up not infrequently on the Dope, and in every discussion there will be the same complaints: fire hazards, children getting maimed, adults getting maimed, scaring the fuck out of pets and out of people with PTSD, and so on. Then there will be the fireworks lovers like me, who eat up fireworks season and would put on nightly displays the week of the 4th if I could afford it (that shit’s expensive, let me tell ya).
If your neighbor launched a bunch of fireworks (legal or illegal) in your neighborhood, would you be angry at them for participating in a dangerous hobby (and/or upsetting you or your pets)? Would you be bothered but accept it as just a part of the fun of the holiday for everyone else? Or would you jump out and enjoy the fun with them?
I feel for people with PTSD, and for easily-frightened pets. I truly do. I suppose that in the (very) unlikely event that a neighbor asked me to cool it, I would. But he’s not going to convince the whole block to do so, that’s for certain. And the police aren’t going to do a damned thing either, for certain.
Long story short: if you don’t like fireworks and live in a place with freewheeling fireworks laws, I think that, in the main, you’re out of luck. How much that sucks will vary from person to person.
It might be annoying. But unless you have real, valid reasons why fireworks are especially problematic, and you’ve talked with them about it, and they still set them off, it’s not transgressive.
I’ll go with not transgressive. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of setting off fireworks on New Year’s Eve, culminating with a long string of Black Cats at midnight. Of course I wouldn’t personally light the more dangerous stuff, one of my older cousins would do those, but that was part of the fun. The whole family was together, with the older adults sitting out on the porch having a good time watching us younger ones doing the lighting. These days I don’t personally light fireworks, but I enjoy a good show put on by the neighbors. And no, I’ve never scene the police out a stop to anyone’s fun, so I don’t worry about that.
We live in a newer development surrounded by some farmland and every 4th of July a lady that runs a horse stable up the road complains that the fireworks spook her horses and we all need to knock it off. This is the same lady who lets duck hunters on her land that go guns-a-blazin every Saturday morning at dawn all Fall long. Guess the horsies don’t mind shotguns.
Yes, I consider it a transgressive act. I had a dog (just recently passed away) who was terrified of fireworks. Every year, for multiple holidays, I had to deal with her being freaked the fuck out. Drugs barely helped. There was basically nothing I could do.
So yeah, for all the reasons you mentioned, they suck. I wish they were banned – oh wait, they are! At least where I live. But the cops look the other way.
I’m sooo happy for everyone who thinks they’re “fun” though. That’s about all I can say outside of the pit.
In my neighborhood, where all those kinds of fireworks are illegal, it is routine to keep going until around 2am. The real assholes are the ones who go quiet for 10 minutes at 1am and then BOOM! set off one of the big ones. Especially in a year like this one, where the holiday falls on a weekend evening (Friday or Saturday) because hey, everyone can sleep in tomorrow, right?
This is true, but in my area this is only because too few cops, too many fireworks assholes.
So, in short, I don’t mind neighborhood fireworks if they don’t cause fires, and if they don’t time them sadistically to wake up anyone who might have dropped off at 1:30 or so.
I wish they were legal, or at least, available, when I was a kid. I’d set off shells all the time. But I lived on a farm, and the nearest neighbor was a mile away. I like the lights, I like the non-earth shattering kaboom. They’re fun, and I can manage to not blow my fingers off, or look down the business end of a shell launcher tube. Nothing to set on fire, either.
But I live in a closely packed modern American neighborhood. It’s fucking annoying, the dogs hate it, and I wish they’d arrest the lot of them. Not for the noise per se, but because they start on oh about Dec 28 and run every night until about Jan 2, and from 6 until 2-3 am. In the street right in front of our house, or from the neighbor’s back yard. In the morning it smells like a firefight. And they never clean up. Stupid fuckers. Moderation in all things, people, not “I got mine!”
My answer is that if the fireworks are legal (and far too many used are not), and they’re permitted (many, many years the fourth is a time of severe fire hazards), then while I personal don’t enjoy them going off in my vicinity, I find them acceptable for up to, say 48 hours of the 4th of July holiday though no later than midnight IMHO.
Take out any of the above, or add in uncontrolled (often inebriated) use, and yes, transgressive.
I’m OK with people going crazy on the actual Fourth of July, but not with turning it into a two week festival of explosions. It would have to be pretty bad before I would actually complain to a neighbor about it, though.
I’m honestly not sure about the legal status of the constantly detonating fireworks in my neighborhood; I suspect they’re illegal, but Indiana is just a few miles away and anything goes there.
Want to set off amateur fireworks for a couple of hours on the 4th? Have at it, as long as you aren’t firing them at my property.
But, in my neighborhood, “fireworks season” starts up a few days before the 4th (I expect I’ll start hearing them tonight), goes to the 4th and beyond, and often means idiots setting off fireworks until midnight or later.
It becomes annoying as fuck; it makes it hard to sleep, as well as scaring the hell out of my cats for multiple nights.
I live deep in a suburban area. We don’t see a lot of fireworks really close to us, but we can usually see something that folks are shooting off I-don’t-know-how-many streets over (often multiple displays in different directions) if we stand out in the street (it’s not a busy thoroughfare) and look out over the housetops.
Transgressive? I can’t say I’ve ever thought of it that way. I don’t even know if those fireworks we see over the rooftops are legal, but if they’re not, those folks seem to get away with it, as far as I know.
Transgression occurs when people shoot off fireworks days before the 4th of July and for days or weeks afterwards, use them during droughts or aim them (or not aim them) so the material from aerial stuff comes down on someone else’s property.
Thankfully we’ve had plenty of rain recently so the idjits are unlikely to set brush fires. Also thankfully, Pluto the Wonder Spaniel isn’t particularly bothered by fireworks, though he reacts when especially loud stuff goes off.
*and since I don’t work ER shifts I won’t be responsible for treating fireworks-related injuries and digital amputations.
Where I live (San Jose) “except for professional, permitted displays, it is unlawful for any person to possess, store, offer, or expose for sale, or use or explode any fireworks.” So yes.
