Fireworks: do you have them and are the bombs bursting right now?

All day long there were fireworks going off in our neighborhood. But the worst were some two blocks over that were shaking our windows. Like a transformer blowing. I called the police at one point because our living room window almost came out of the hinges. They reminded me that fireworks are legal and I said "that's fireworks. This sounded like a pipe bomb."

It was the type that go off at night in your basic demonstration - during the freaking day. Someone told me it was a package of four for $160.

When I was a kid, in another state, fireworks were outlawed. In smalltown America these days, it's a tax boost to weak economies. What's the rule where you are and if your state or city allows them, have the types got out of control?

 

DC blows them up behind their most recognizable monument. And I was there to see them! But I think the government shoots them off, so I can't help you.....but I'll look up our laws in VA. In ME you couldn't...But we did anyway!

 

They're illegal for private citizens in Massachusetts, but the law seems to be ignored. When I was a kid, the neighbors put on a better show than the town did.
On a more serious note, this afternoon, I was at my brother's and one of his friends visited. The guy is in the National Guard and he just returned from Iraq about a week ago.
The guy across the street was lighting off some really loud ones (M-80s, I think) and my brother's friend had a panic attack.
I can't even imagine how bad that experience must have been for him.

 

I feel like I'm surrounded by them in my California Community despite the fact that they are HIGHLY illegal considering the Big Sur fire is a short bit away. A CHP/Sheriff helicopter circled the neighborhood off and on for nearly an hour before heading east.

I also have to say the the block party a few closer to the ocean must have spent a small fortune becuause they're better than the fireworks that I see at a minor league park on Friday night!

 

They've been going off here for about a week and a half. I don't mind an occasional firecracker or two, but these are full aerials going off in town. Where I grew up, you actually had to drive to the country, find a pasture and shoot them off (if we were under severe fire danger, that is). Here, apparently it is perfectly acceptable to let 'em rip right in the middle of a residential area.

Things that make you absolutely love the Fifth of July....

 

Went to a friend's house. Their 4-year-old daughter was enjoying sparklers in the backyard. But block over, a doctor in the neighborhood began his annual show. He regularly spends $1,000 on fireworks and shoots them off in the middle of the cul-de-sac. Like Wenders, I'm talking full aerials going up about 100 feet before bursting.

The kids loved it, but I was sitting there remembering the time cops came to my mom's house because we were shooting bottle rockets off.

I guess that's yet another difference between 2008 and 1978.

 

We had some late afternoon showers roll through, so the air was clear by nightfall. From my backyard I could see the fireworks displays from every town within about a 20-mile radius. Very cool.

 

I watched the DC fireworks from the roof of my work near the Capitol. From where I was I could see about 10 sets going on in Maryland to the north and east. Not nearly as great as the DC show, but pretty cool nonetheless.

 

In Texas, as long as you don't live in the city limits and there's no burn ban or firework ban in place because of too-dry conditions, fireworks are fair game.

 

In Michigan, anything that leaves the ground is illegal. Nobody follows this rule, and everyone uses anything from bottle rockets to the big M80s that make the windows rattle. The cops never stop anyone because every fifth house on the street is lighting the damn things off. Its too much to stop so from about July 1st to July 10th all you hear are fireworks all night. It gets old fast.

 

Do M-80s sound like real bombs? Because the ones I'm talking about sure as hell are. Pyrotechnics being what they are, these aren't the over-the-counter fireworks of my youth. The manufacturers keep pushing the card. Hell, certified fireworks people used to be the only ones who could set these off. Now, as you all have pointed out, John Q. Pubilc can have his own to rival any.

 

Mrs. T. and I are sitting in our week's rental at a little villa on Cape Cod Bay about 9 p.m. tonight, and the family (including little kids) in the apartment next to ours is firing up every kind of Roman candle and M-80 you can imagine. Think of that stuff landing in the 30 feet or so of high-grassy dune between us and the beach.
Dammit, we need protection from these families.