This is not really Pit-worthy, hence it is mundane…
Larry you are a great guy. A real stand up chap. I am proud to be a member of your family. You have helped me when I needed it and I have learned lots from you.
But you, sir, are an idiot when fireworks are introduced.
I know it wasn’t your fault yesterday when your 20 year old daughter thought she was lighting a sparkler and showing it to my 3 year old daughter. It wasn’t a sparkler. It was a bottle rocket. It swooshed across the yard and exploded harmlessly, but it could have ended much worse.
Then you insist on setting all the firecrackers on one end of your picnic table and lighting them on the other. One stray spark and they are all gonna go…and in all directions.
But you light them without knowing what they do…you laid a Roman Candle on the picnic table with the business end aimed at all of us spectators. While the flares bouncing off the side of your garage may have made you laugh, they made me nervous.
I hope you don’t think I was rude for leaving with my family before you were done. Dinner was great. The badmitton tourney was a blast, but next year I am skipping the fireworks.
I live with my 2 brothers. Last night, one brother’s friend wanted to bring fireworks over at around midnight, when they got off work. I told him no way. We don’t need the fire hazard in a residential area. We also don’t need to wake up the neighbors and give them a reason to call the police.
I’m in the house last night around 7pm and the neighbors are shooting off rockets that look like professional-grade types. I’m talking bigger than can be bought at roadside fireworks stands. They were also setting off Roman Candles and big packages of firecrackers. I’m talking packages of several hundred.
Maybe I’ve outgrown fireworks, in the driveway at least. I just think they’re kinda pointless. A big professonal display is nice.
We had lots of rain yesterday but normally Texas is pretty dry in the summer. The thought of private citizens sending flaming projectiles all around their houses in July just seems ridiculous.
I used to love fireworks, loved watching them, loved shooting them off on the rare occasion that I came by any. Loved firecrackers, bottle rockets, sparklers, giant sparklers, roman candles, etc. The bigger the better. Real fireworks were/are illegal in PA. Then I had an experience similar to that described above - I was with some friends in Massachussetts who went over to their neighbors house across the street on the 4th of July for a private fireworks show in their yard. Everything seemed fine until they lit one of those things that spins up into the air shooting a spray of colored sparks. This spinner spun toward the audience and everyone dove for the bushes to avoid the errant firework. I still have a mental image of someone’s old granny trying to get out of the way. It was then that I realized how really dangerous these things can be and how the fun is nowhere near worth the risk and I swore off fireworks from then on. That was, I think, 1982. Cheers, and Happy 4th of July.
I like watching professional fireworks displays, but fireworks at home can be dangerous. About 5 years ago there was a boy in my neighbourhood who lost an eye whilst playing with firecrackers.
Actually, a few years ago, fireworks restrictions were introduced in my state, NSW, which effectively banned dangerous backyard fireworks unless the users have a permit. Using fireworks without a permit can incur a one year gaol sentence.
My neighbors always have DIY fireworks shows on the 4th–we had a riproaring one this year and judging from the sounds outside the window it’s still going on. Last year it was forbidden because of fire danger. (And don’t ask me why it wasn’t forbidden this year, as we still are in a drought and things are catching fire all over the state.) In 1998’s celebration, within the space of a few minutes, my yard caught fire and I was almost hit by a bottle rocket. Fortunately the fire was quickly stomped out and I leapt out of the way of the rocket. I still love the neighborhood fireworks displays but I always have the hose ready just in case.
And I’d hate to be an emergency room employee on the 4th of July.