I like sparklers more than big shows, because you can spell out things waving them in the dark.
Of the big displays, I like the ones that spiral to the ground like corkscrews.
The cannon-like explosions without any sparks.
Always startle the crowd and make the dogs fly.
Big fireworks: those gold shimmery corkscrews. I also like those white-flashy-sonic-booms especially when done at a stadium. And the ones that look like Saturn.
Small fireworks: I don’t know the name of it, but it looks like an apple and flashes like you’re in an '80s disco. Many years ago, my fierce little dog Ursula tried to eat one when she got away from me (Kita, my retriever, being a good gun dog, could have cared less about fireworks). When I got Ursula inside to check her, she was fine, but all her whiskers had little curliques on the ends.
Hey, Kiffa - I hope Jacksonville has better fireworks than last year.
Well, sister, it’s been raining the last five days in a row. I mean thunder and lightening. The Mayor’s fireworks ban has been lifted. Hurrah! Now it’s a question of where should we go? to the Landing? to St Augustine? to the beach where they may cancell at the last minute?
I love those big bang chrysanthemum firewords; they make the earth move and you see stars in your eyes…
Brachy - what are you going to do?
Gotta go catch birds. I’m thinking of going to see the big ships today, if I get a chance.
Do St. Augustine. They don’t seem to have the hot wind that Jacksonville Beach has. Have a happy 4th!
Anything with large amounts of Cobalt in it.
Piccalo Petes. The ol’ explosion thing you can do with them is the best part.
I almost forgot…bottle rockets!
Vandal, what’s the explosion thing you can do with PPs?
You hit a piccolo pete in the middle with a hammer. Its takes out the whistle. Im pretty sure you can’t do that with the modern ones.
I like a nice, big, 24" chrysantheum.
My favorites, although you never see them anymore for some reason, are those ones that go into a standard starburst, but then each of the sparks goes into a burst, too: Sort of like a spider plant, if that helps.
Somehow it seems to be the epitome of the gunpowder idea.
Dangerous though.
The park has a new fireworks show to commemorate its 45th anniversary this year, and they’re conducting the show ever night through the summer.
The show is sponsored by Compaq, and each firework has an embedded computer chip in it to make sure it fires just at the precise moment.
Besides seeing a most WONDERFUL fireworks show timed to some great original music, they do two things that cause the crowd to WOW audibly in amazement:
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3 fireworks set off and fired in unison, in the correct location, the right size and the right configuration to create a Mickey Mouse head.
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A “shooting star” that streaks across the sky.
The show leaves people wide-mouthed and cheering at the end. I have to say it’s the BEST fireworks show I’ve ever seen, both for creativity, music coordination, and sheer technological feat.
It’s kinda funny that I saw this thread thoday, when I just got my shipment of fireworks.
20 M1000’s. Rumor is that these are equal to 1/4 of a stick of dynamite, but if they are then a whole stick of dynamite must be pretty shitty. These are the most dangerous of all of my fireworks, but the most fun. Damn things will blow your hand off if you aren’t careful. But they are water proof so they look really cool when you throw them in water.
One box of three inch mortars. (6 pc.) These are balls, 3’ in diameter that you drop in the provided tube, light, and run. The fuse is about 6 inches long and for good reason. The balls fly in the air about 300+ feet and then explodes.
One brick of bottle rockets (144 pc.). It’s the staple of the 4th of July. But I get the good kind, plastic shell, whistling and with report.
Two packages (12 pc.) M80 launchers. Small tube with 6 M80’s in it that lauch one after another into the air and then explode into different colors.
Two packages of Roman Candles. (12 pc.) These are just different colored flaming balls that shoot out of a tube.
One package of 8oz Bottle Rockets. (12 pc.) Larger verison of the classic bottle rocket.
Two packages of Artillery Shells. (12 pc.) Not REAL artillary Shells. These are like the mortars I described above, except the ball is on the end of a stick that you stick in the ground. You light the fuse, run and when it explodes, launches the ball into the air.
12 packages of Piccolo Petes. (36 pc.) Yes it still works. You simply wrap the Pete in tape a little so it does not make a mess when you hit it with a hammer. Then pound the shit out of it with a hammer. Never had one exploded while hitting it with a hammer but I have heard the stories.
And thats it. Of them all I think my Fav is the mortars. Big ass boom when they first go off, and then another big ass boom when they explode in the air. Unfortunetly all of these, expect the Petes, are HIGHLY illegal in California. But I go to a beach in a certain city in the Bay Area when the cops sit at the top of the beach and watch everyone light off their illegal fireworks. Then at 11PM they come down and kick everyone off the beach. It has been happening for as many years that I know of, and no one has been hurt seriously to my knowledge, so I guess that’s why they still do it. Anyway, Happy 4th to everyone!!! And be glad you don’t live by me. 
-N