# Fireworks **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 5, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946 "2009-07-05T02:09:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/1 "2009-07-05T02:09:24Z")
There’s some serious shit going on out there. Sounds like Sherman’s artillery. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/2 "2009-07-05T02:13:14Z")
Thunderstorms here (OKC, OK) all night so far. Saw a pretty good show last night just around the neighbourhood. All the “official” stuff, tho, seems to have been severely diminished, if not out right canceled. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/3 "2009-07-05T02:22:02Z")
Some stuff gets fired off that sounds like the House Whose Propane Blew Up a few years ago. I gotta get some of that stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/4 "2009-07-05T02:22:55Z")
It’s actually been nice here for the last two days, as opposed to the rain of the last three weeks. We just went to go see ours in downtown Albany - a full half hour, and just lovely. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/5 "2009-07-05T02:34:00Z")
It’s sprinkling here. This has not put a damper on the Fireworks as far as I can tell–although I believe what I’m actually hearing are fireworks belonging to individuals rather than offical ones. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/6 "2009-07-05T23:42:59Z")
It is July FIFTH and the little bastards across the street are setting off firecrackers. My dogs are scared and I tried to make a phone call earlier and had to go into the hall closet. My husband went over and asked them politely to stop. They said they would. Now they’re doing it again. He’s going to TELL them to stop. One more chance and he calls the police. The Fourth, they get a pass. The Fifth, they’re just jerking off. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/7 "2009-07-06T19:55:45Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > The Fourth, they get a pass. The Fifth, they’re just jerking off. Yep. And the Fourth ends at midnight. Took the wife and kid to see the local fireworks and everyone was happy. Until about 1:30 a.m. when the drunk partying neighbors decided it was time to put on their own show. Awesome, you just woke up the whole neighborhood. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/8 "2009-07-06T20:18:59Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > There’s some serious shit going on out there. Yep. The bay was lit up from point to point. We’re talking mortars here; ‘real’ fireworks you’d expect to see over Disneyland. And other things. Someone down the beach was firing something that looked like it was shooting a stream of tracers a hundred feet in the air, waving back and forth like a hose. Of course mortars and several of the other things people were shooting off over the water are illegal off of tribal lands; but when you have thousands of people jamming the beach and lighting stuff off, whaddya gonna do? Can’t ticket everybody! (Anyway, thousands of people are good for the local economy.) I live about 400 feet up the hill from the beach. I walked down and crossed the beach road and was about 30 feet from the water. There were people with fireworks right in front of me. One of their mortars only went up about eight feet before it exploded. That was neat! 🆒 A bit of the dry grass between the road and the water caught fire, but it was stamped out in seconds by bystanders. What really surprised me was that at midnight the noise went from war-zone to practically nothing. All of those illegal fireworks, and yet nearly everyone paid attention to the stop time. Saturday the place was packed. Thousands and thousands of people. Sunday… The dead zone. ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/9 "2009-07-06T20:57:59Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Of course mortars and several of the other things people were shooting off over the water are illegal off of tribal lands Mortars illegal off of tribal land? In Washington, right? That’s news to me; I’ve always been able to get them at the various supermarket parking lot stands, though I generally don’t, since I usually find better prices on the reservations. I expect they’re probably illegal in many municipal areas (and possibly certain counties), but in general I’m pretty sure they’re okay. …Not that mere technicalities like the law will ever stop people from getting their fireworks around here. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/10 "2009-07-06T21:57:55Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > It is July FIFTH and the little bastards across the street are setting off firecrackers. My dogs are scared and I tried to make a phone call earlier and had to go into the hall closet. My husband went over and asked them politely to stop. They said they would. Now they’re doing it again. He’s going to TELL them to stop. One more chance and he calls the police. The Fourth, they get a pass. The Fifth, they’re just jerking off. The only good thing about my dog getting old is that at 15 1/2 he is either too deaf to hear the fireworks anymore or has decided it isn’t worth the effort to bark at them. Made things much quieter in the house. All fireworks are illegal in our town (though not the one next door.) Every year though there is a barrage - and the next day the police say “no fireworks in our town, nope, nope.” ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/11 "2009-07-07T00:02:58Z")
I love living in Indiana. We set off so many rockets off my deck up over the woods in my backyard that Neil Armstrong called and said he was jealous. Nice soft rain all afternoon soaking the woods alleviated any concern about fires, too. Perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/12 "2009-07-07T01:31:22Z")
> [@Stealth\_Potato](#): > > Mortars illegal off of tribal land? In Washington, right? That’s news to me; I’ve always been able to get them at the various supermarket parking lot stands, though I generally don’t, since I usually find better prices on the reservations. I expect they’re probably illegal in many municipal areas (and possibly certain counties), but in general I’m pretty sure they’re okay. I’ve just re-read what’s legal and what isn’t in the local rag, and ‘multi-aerials’ are legal. If ‘multi-aerials’ are mortars, then I’m wrong and I stand corrected. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/13 "2009-07-07T01:38:28Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > If ‘multi-aerials’ are mortars, then I’m wrong and I stand corrected. I _gotta_ get some of those. ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/14 "2009-07-07T01:39:13Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > It’s actually been nice here for the last two days, as opposed to the rain of the last three weeks. We just went to go see ours in downtown Albany - a full half hour, and just lovely. I’ve lived in the Capital District for 11 years and still haven’t seen the fireworks. I’d love to stake our claim to a table at The Sports Grill on Rte. 4 and watch from there…or risk getting a ticket by parking on the Patroon Island bridge. All I had this year was the sound of illegal fireworks from around the neighborhood, but nothing visible. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/15 "2009-07-07T01:58:48Z")
Here’s a list from the community paper: Legal • Novelty and smoke items • Sparklers and spinners • Multi-aerials • Helicopters • Cones and fountains • Roman candles • Wheels Legal on tribal lands • Firecrackers and chasers • Bottle rockets • Missiles and rockets Illegal • M-80s or larger • Cherry bombs • Tennis ball bombs • Altered legal fireworks Here’s a definition I found of ‘mortar’: Mortar- Paper or HDPE tube with a shell in it with a long fuse that , the lift power at the bottom shoots it into the air producing audible and visual effects, the tubes can be reloaded with shells. (And this is a ‘shell’: Shell- round shape emitted from a tube , mortar, etc that produces effects in the sky) Here’s a page of [multi-aerials](https://www.fireworksgiant.com/shop/multi-aerial-items/16/). These appear to be similar to [rocket artillery](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artillery_rocket), an that they launch a bunch of screaming miniature rockets in sequence. I don’t see mortars on the list; illegal, legal, or legal on tribal lands. I didn’t buy any fireworks this year or last year. Why bother? Let other people spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on them and I’ll just watch! 😃 But I don’t remember seeing mortars at the one fireworks stand I went to a few years ago off of tribal lands. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/16 "2009-07-07T02:42:48Z")
You can’t shoot firecrackers or bottle rockets in Washington, the land of _Darlingtonia californica_? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fireworks/501946/17 "2009-07-07T02:49:18Z")
Here, I can shoot off anything I want. Fines or jail time for doing so, but hey … Some neighborhood bozos here were firing off some stuff Sunday that I didn’t think was even allowed to be sold to the public in this state.