Fireworks

Good thing the fireworks weren't affected by the troubles in China! Beyond sparklers, I don't need to have personal fireworks so the price increases don't affect me.

While prices are going up and there were rumors of shortages, I don't think it's going to affect my life; there are always fireworks in several locations in the city, along with many suburbs. My suburb doesn't have fireworks for 4th of July, theirs occur during the annual festival in September.

Around here, there are fireworks as part of many other events throughout summer, including the Aquatennial and the State Fair.

Never mind the neighbors, who seem to have fireworks that are illegal here.

Fireworks Season

Driving home yesterday, I noticed that the annual fireworks sale tents are up. I had already seen fireworks in the discount stores. This is a relatively new phenomenon around here, as fireworks were illegal a few years ago and had been my whole life. We went to my mom's hometown for 4th of July every year when I was little. And always had sparklers, provided by my mom's uncle. Who must've bootlegged them from another state. They were legal in at least three surrounding states. My uncle and sister used to bring fireworks across state lines for my brother when he was in junior high. One year, he was in the backyard with bottle rockets and my mom. A cop stopped by to see what was going on; he had seen one of the rockets flying. Because he had adult supervision, the cop left with no problem. Illegal must be relative.

A couple of years ago, I had gone outside to get something from my car and unknown to me a cop I knew had pulled up; he asked what I was doing and I told him and returned the question. He was on his way to the park at the end of the street, checking on reports of gunshots and figured he had time to stop and chat. He correctly expected that the gunshots were firecrackers because it was the season.