Whether you are heading to the beach, attending a BBQ, or going to Tom Brown Park for the Tallahassee 4th of July
Celebration, chances are there will be fireworks involved.
Nothing quite says AMERICA like bottle rockets and used BlackCat
wrappers all over the driveway (both classified as illegal fireworks in Florida by the way).
When I think back to my youth growing up in Chicago, I can distinctly remember a friend’s older brother driving over to Indiana from Illinois, purchasing
hundreds of dollars’ worth of illegal fireworks, and trafficking them back to Illinois – illegally of course.
My best friend and I couldn’t wait to get our hands on an M-80, strap it to G.I. Joe, light the wick, and watch him get blown to bits; all without any adult supervision.
SIDE NOTE: In my experience, men generally love to watch things explode. Even during my time in the military, members of my unit would salivate at the opportunity to fire live ordinance and watch an innate target blow up in a cluster of fire and smoke .
In retrospect, I realize how dangerous it was for us at such a young age to be handling seriously dangerous explosives.
An M-80 mishap could have caused one of us to lose a hand, eye, or much worse. Had my parents caught wind of what I was doing, losing a hand would be getting off easy.
I implore you to leave the serious fireworks to the professionals, and exercise these safety tips … but remember to have fun!