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Firecrackers!
Are fireworks allowed in your area? If so, which did you enjoy this New Year’s? Which were disappointments that you wish you’d burned before you payed for them?
What fireworks of yesteryear earned their places in Valhalla? Have you forgiven your parents yet for black snakes? Is your closet full of poppers and candy cigarettes?
Speak now or forever hold your powder!
Published in General
Fireworks are legal in Fairbanks and they’re going off all over as I speak (it’s only 8:30pm right now). If I could see them from my window, I’d watch. But all I hear is the noise.
I’d have to go with just regular firecrackers and bottle rockets. Firecrackers because you can actually blow stuff up with them; not big stuff, but stuff anyway. And bottle rockets because you can shoot them AT things, and they’re like $3/gross.
Fireworks are illegal in Everett, but that has never stopped residents from buying them and setting them off in the city limits. We have a big Indian reservation a few miles north of us, and they do a booming (pun intended) business all year round. The folks in the house over the back fence from us (not in our complex) set off lots of fireworks on July 4 and New Years, and we don’t mind very much. On July 4, we drive down to Bellevue for their big display, then on the way home we have lots of other little displays to watch all the way home.
Years ago, I built a restaurant at Cherry Creek Mall in Denver. At the time, my older brother worked for Coke, and lived in Aurora. I was at his house for July 4. It was pretty neat, because the Denver area is sort of bowl-shaped, and you could see 4 or 5 fairly large fireworks displays going off. Some of them were quite far away.
I live in New Hampshire, where fireworks are legal, but we didn’t get any and neither did our neighbors. But my wife and I did buy BB guns today and we’re going to shoot some things tomorrow. We moved up here from New York City, where everything is illegal. We’ll get real guns eventually, but we figured we’d work our way up to them.
On New Years Eve and Independence Day, San Antonio becomes West Beirut. I think my parents’ next door neighbors are testing some self-propelled artillery as I write this.
They are legal in SC. My neighbors start testing out their supply early. There was a huge boom in the middle of the night. I realized I was woken up to mark the new year. To celebrate, I rolled over and went back to sleep.
Mike, a fireworks stand here had a sign out front: “Buy 1 Get 1 Free Artillery”. Stationed in front of a redneck bar, that might be truth in advertising.
In Illinois even writing posts about fireworks is now illegal. Thanks, AM, that puts me $500 in the hole on the first day of 2015
I’m in NJ. Don’t let the crime rates of Camden and Newark fool you- this is the most boring state of the union. No fireworks. You need to go to PA. In NJ, you even need to be 21 with a special license to buy model rocket engines- too much black powder involved.
And lest you think our laws stop with such modern technologies: no freakin’ slingshots! (I suppose they’re worried that they might be used to sling a firecracker…)
No, seriously: no slingshots. I remember kids down south making fun of us when my brothers and I would stock up on firecrackers and slingshot ammo on summer vacations.
So New Year’s Eve is fairly quiet in the NJ suburbs.
Ooh, slingshots reminded me of a favorite when I was a kid: smoke bombs!
Just outside of Houston, our plans are sometimes spoiled by drought. But regulations are generally limited to splitting dynamite into smaller M60s or rolls of sparklers. ;)
By the way, if any of our European members are reading this, I’d be curious to know what you think of this American tradition. Are fireworks available for unlicensed purchase over there? When do y’all shoot them?
I lived in West Germany in the 1960’s as a boy. New Year’s Eve was celebrated by fireworks at the time, and they were plentiful. I watched a German teenager once repeatedly put a small tin can over a fairly big firecracker. He’d set it off and watch the can go pretty high up into the air. In retrospect, especially with their gun control laws, I thought that was amazing.
Your question prompted me to do some internet searching, and it’s still legal in Germany to have fireworks during end of year celebrations. Back yard fireworks celebrations are still common.
On the other hand, Ireland has stiff fines (because of past terrorism?).
And Ireland is always misty wet, so there’s no fire hazard.
I’m guessing Americans brought the tradition with them during the postwar occupation. Do the French or Spanish play with fireworks? The Italians?
Which makes Massachusetts’ blanket ban on fireworks particularly bone-headed, though you wouldn’t guess it from the way people behave on July Fourth. We’ve also got a few full-blooded Americans in our neighborhood who set a few on New Years and for major sports victories.
My friends and I did much the same when we lived in Washington. It’s a minor miracle we didn’t burn down the San Juans a few times.
When I lived in Spain (69-70) we had fireworks and set them off, but whether or not they were legal, I have no clue. Place we bought them sold almost anything to crazy Americans, and seemed a bit shady. But they were around, and you heard them a lot on various Saints days, particularly for the patron saints of particular small villages. Franco was still the dictator then, so I have no knowledge of what they have done in the intervening 45 years.
Aaron,
I recommend only ACME fireworks. This is a name that you can trust.
Regards,
Jim
The temperature was -10C / -15F, and people were being advised to bundle up well. I guess the media has to say something! Doesn’t it give a nice feeling that we are being told to dress warmly, even if we have grown past the stage where Mom is chasing us up!
In Canada, there are federal laws regulating the use of fireworks. These refer proposed users to the provincial laws. Also there are municipal laws. It is advised that people buy from approved dealers.
In high school, many eons ago, my boyfriend and I would go up the canyon to the reservoir in the early spring and he would light and toss M-80s onto the softening ice. I guess he was trying to encourage the melt. In Wyoming, then and now, you can buy almost anything at fireworks stands.
Now I live in Sin City where most fireworks aren’t legal, but many people buy them from the Indian reservations for the holidays. We go up on the roof of our house (from the east side hill) and watch the big show along the Strip, and the “little” shows that are occurring all over the valley. People like to blow things up for celebrations around here. I think it is just a human thing to play with fire and explosions.
Any objections to Roman candle battles?
Still very legal in South Carolina, and we have enormous year-round stores near the borders with North Carolina and Georgia. Little known fact: the most common last words uttered before death in this state are, “Hey! Watch this!”
“South of the Border: You never sausage a place”
Stopped in every time.
Bottle rockets (with report) will usually fit thru ventilation holes in a port-a-john.
That’s just evil.
Trash can lid in one hand, 10 shot candle in the other. I’m sure it was just like the gladiators did it.
It’s a bit ironic, but here in Colorado Springs its easier to find a place to fire weapons legally than to find a place to shoot BBs. It’s much more expensive to fire weapons here, but there are at least 4 firing ranges around me and nowhere to go to shoot BBs.
When I was a kid, I saw a Roman candle forget to candle, and it went up all at once. Anyone holding it would have been handless. You can keep your Roman candle battles; but then, I always was a wimp.
In Indiana fireworks are legal. In fact up, until last year, on the 4th of July, a group of friends put on a private fireworks display that was as good as, or better than, the local “city” display. People would come from all over and park in the street to watch. Going around with a few buckets generated enough cash to pay for most of it. Then the BATF decided they needed a bunker to store the fireworks for the few days between delivery and the show. End of show. For some reason the city doesn’t need said bunker. Go figure.
Fireworks are legal in Italy — at least I assume they are, as they are for sale everywhere in the weeks leading up to New Year’s. We didn’t set any off this year, but in years past we have done it from our terrace. Our neighborhood usually booms from about 10 pm to 1 am New Year’s Eve, and we can sometimes see the bigger ones above the apartment buildings.