Independence Day, fireworks and more

Because of the "burn ban" here in South Central Texas, won't be able to "shoot" the kind of fireworks I like, so, will go to a supervized show.

 

I am going to my friend's house out in the country, because fireworks are only legal outside city limits here. We will be barbequing and playing volleyball and doing all kinds of things. My friend Lidia who is Half-German(Her father is German) and half-American (her mother is American) Will be experiencing her first real fourth. She has lived Germany her whole life. We are so excited for her.

 

We also have a burn ban in effect, but it doesn't include fireworks. By law, a burn ban must be in effect by June 15 in order to ban certain fireworks. It wasn't put in place until this past week, so we can shoot all of them we like.

I've got a friend coming in from college and we usually get together and shoot them. He is legally blind, so I get in the street and help him light them sometimes, even though he is a bit skiddish around them.

When is was a kid, we would have bottle rocket wars with the neighbors. I have been shot in the foot and in the head and both left big bruises, but it's all in good fun. I've also had my head buzzed by a misfiring Roman Candle.

My mother came out one time on New Year's and sat in the driveway in a lawnchair with a blanket over her. A bottle rocket flew astray and shot under and up into her blanket. She just came unglues out of that chair. It was hilarious!

Fireworks are illegal in Houston and the other smaller cities around here, but they are perfectly legal in unincorporated areas, like where I live.

It should be fun.

 

We would battle it out at the sports complex in Leeds, AL. Whistling bottle rockets at 20 paces. Someone taught us how to light a M-80 and hit it with a handball racket. 30-40 yards, easy.

We used to tear the filter off a cig and push it into the fuse of an M-80, light it and go hide. 2-3 minutes later BOOM!

I shot a friend with a roman candle at close range. He had on so much hair spray, his hair caught on fire.

Needless to say, my kids do not shoot fireworks without adult supervision.

 

We used to have fireworks Down Under for the Queen's birthday. I didn't care much about the Queen or her birthday (still don't), but fireworks were great fun Until the schtoopid governments banned them just because people were blowing themselves up

Now you can only get fireworks in Canberra.....Or make some REAL noise from internet recipes.....

 

What is interesting is being out of the US and wanting to celebrate it.

 

It is illegal in Illinois to buy or sell any kind of fireworks except the kind that just fizzle or smoke so we go to the supervised fireworks show.

Of course many people cross the state line into Missouri or Indiana, buy fireworks, and bring them back here. We usually get to here the loud booms for about a week before and after the 4th...

 

Hope to be in DC this year for the 4th. Should be a lot of fun!!!

 

cool!

 

I live near DC, only 4 miles away, and fireworks are legal here (in VA) but I don't like them in the hands of amateurs. I don't even know what these things are that are being mentioned in the posts here.

I usually go out in the back and watch the fireworks on the Mall down in DC from here. I can see them. I like those -- they are done very professionally and are beautiful.

Then I cringe the rest of the evening when people are running around setting off stuff that make exploding sounds that bother me.

One thing that goes on every year here is Christ on the Mall outreach. Christians from various churches go down to the Mall and witness. There's a huge folklife festival there that attracts a lot of people all week of the 4th. I've done this 3 times.

 

Alcott,

that reminded me of a time when I was about 12 years old. It was in August, the hottest month of the year here, and probably around 105 degrees outside. We were also in a drought, so there was a burn ban in effect. Some of the neighbor kids on the street behind us had some bottle rockets left over from the Fourth and they were shooting them off.

One of the rockets landed in the side of our backyard and commenced to burning the grass. The neighbor ran over and told my mother, who then sent out my older brother to put out the flames with the hose. When it was finally out, the fire had burned the side yard between our house and the fence (about 15') and from the front fence back even with my bedroom (about 30'). It is a miracle that neither the fence nor the house caught fire.

I don't do those kinds of fireworks when we have a burn ban or when it's not the right time of year.

 

Marcia, I watched the Mall fireworks from the top of a parking garage at American University a few years ago. The boom coming several seconds after the explosion kinda takes the edge off the ohhh and ahhh factor. Still one of the best display I've ever seen!

 

Marcia -- Looked for you on the mall this year but didn't see you among the millions there. The fireworks were wonderful, but a bit lacking due to no music. (The music was back at the Capitol, which we had seen the dress rehearsal the night before.) Also, they have this big white thing, which was in the way.

I didn't see anyone representing "Christ on the Mall" on the fourth though I did see the Hari Krishnas there.