This was the first year that Indiana has allowed so called "out of state" fireworks to be shot off legally. Of course everyone shot these fireworks off in town even when they weren't legal, but it was a little more discreet in the past.
Reminds me of a story of my youth when I was around 13 years old or so. I had a ice cream tub full of single firecrackers that I had undone from bricks to use for assorted purposes. Blowing up my plastic models being first and foremost. Anyway I wanted to set some off so I took my tub of firecrackers to the driveway. I didn't have any punks and I didn't feel like lighting a lighter every time so I got a candle. So here I am sitting in the driveway with a candle and a huge tub of firecrackers lighting them off one at a time when I look up and see the front end of a police cruiser heading slowly down our cul de sac. I freak out and run, leaving the tub of firecrackers and candle sitting in the middle of the driveway. I don't know where to go so I do whatever a kid that age does. I go in the backdoor of the house and down to the basement thinking "crap, I left everything on the driveway", but maybe the cop won't notice. Nope the door bell rings and I vaguely hear a conversation between the cop and my dad. Luckily the cop was cool and just told my dad to tell me to be careful. My dad just looked at me and shook his head. Thanks to dad for smoothing that over.
Anyway, going back to the original story of this year being the first for "out of state" stuff. All weekend long its been like downtown Baghdad around our house. (Luckily it hasn't effected either of the boys sleeping.) I decide to run down to the DQ for a couple blizzards last night and pull out of my driveway to see people shooting off all kinds of sparking, launching stuff in the streets. I drive around a bunch of these launch pads hoping not to catch a spark or a missile in the side of the car, and go quickly to the DQ and back. I get back and quickly close the garage door and tell jenny to "batten down the hatches!!!!"... where she promptly tells me "they are battened down"... and then I tell her "batten them down again, we'll teach those hatches!!" (thanks Bugs Bunny). It wasn't as bad in the past years since people had to be more discreet, but now it's like a freakin free for all. I am sure when the boys get a bit older they will get into the fireworks thing, but for now, I'll just duck and cover.
1 comment:
I wonder how many fires were set this year? My brother-in-law remarked that with a small tax hike, 2-5% of the tax money (unclear) went to firefighters/stations.
Hopefully, after 2 years, people will about get it out of their system of the ban -- much like prohibition. I'm sure there were hospitalizations and deaths from overuse, just like it is this year.
BTW: I like the Warner Brothers reference, as I got it right away!
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