The Fourth of July; and of course, Fireworks - Your Favorite?

a reply to: TinySickTears

Awe and wonder per dollar...... it's only once a year and well worth it. Better than Starbucks and less fattening..

I love all of them.
I'm pretty sure you can get ticketing around here for NOT shooting off fireworks.

I'm from California. My favorite is a party popper.

originally posted by: c2oden
I love all of them.
I'm pretty sure you can get ticketing around here for NOT shooting off fireworks.

The state I live in they're illegal.... Except in January and July (unwritten).

originally posted by: CriticalStinker

originally posted by: c2oden
I love all of them.
I'm pretty sure you can get ticketing around here for NOT shooting off fireworks.

The state I live in they're illegal.... Except in January and July (unwritten).

Totally legal here for a week leading up to the 4th and New Years.
Firework stands (non profit) everywhere.

a reply to: charlyv

Cape May, New Jersey. Fireworks on a barge in front of Congress Hall while sitting on the beach.

originally posted by: TruMcCarthy
Haha, my fault.

M-80, I strapped one up to a John Cena action figure a couple years ago, I still haven't found a single piece of Cena anywhere.

Best dang way to remove ant hills from your yard.....
Highly trained professional , please dont try this at home...

I was visiting New Orleans or Shreveport when I was a teen . It was the 4th of July. I noticed a fireworks stand across the street from the motel I was staying in . Why the heck not , right ? So I purchase some fireworks and go to the large empty lot next to the fireworks stand. I hear someone yelling "you cant do that here" . It was the proprietor of the fireworks stand. Apparently , due to zoning , one side of the street it was legal to sell and buy fireworks . But illegal to set them off . However , on the motel side it was illegal to buy or sell , but perfectly legal to set them off
Go figure , and a VERY true story.

I like the mortars of all kinds and the big ole rockets plus roman candles. And anything that screams! Sorry i cannot be more specific, my home state is dry as a bone and burns every year so fireworks in the city were pretty much a no go except for those willing to travel out of state and then get a ticket from the cops the night of the 4th.

Now i live in Alabama just a few miles from a place called Shelton's Fireworks. We picked up earlier tonight actually.
They claim to be the biggest supply warehouse in the world? I dont know if that is true but it sure was mind blowing to me to experience coming from a state who only had crackers and sparklers in tents out in the county.



Theres the place. Spent a lot and then got store credit bonus to go back in and pick up some more .

This year weve got a 5 thousand shot cracker roll that im sure the neighbors will hate but hey they had a 40 thousand shot roll we passed on!

I am loving getting to put on our own firework show with the family as opposed to viewing one on the 4th here. Theyve already began getting shot off nightly around here and will continue for at least several days after the fourth. The dogs around must hate us humans every year for it.

I am amped! Although apparently the real dangerous/fun ones are banned nowadays even here like the M80 so being young ive still never exeproenced those.

in sandusky when you buy them you have to sign a paper saying you will take them out of state
they take your license #

originally posted by: charlyv

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: charlyv

Home made m80's and 100s, also home made sky rockets with Estes engines topped by whatever including packs of firecrackers and whizzers...

Ahh the olden days, firework wars at the beach.

Wow, similar experience. If we could not buy 'em, we made 'em.
D-Class Estes rockets, made our own tubes with craft paper and glue, payloads of Jumpin Jacks!. To the moon!

Thats what they were called, Jumpin Jacks. I used empty toilet paper tubes, put one m80 top center, stuffed the tube with a pack of firecrackers and taped a pack of jumping jacks around the outside. Length of dowels for stability, trimmed to the center of Gravity and spun test on string around my head.

These never failed, chinese fireworks, estes D engines and cannon fuse at the beach.

Whooosh, trail of sparks, delay, cracker-raaack and whizzzz.... BOOM!

Glad someone else was savvy too.

a reply to: lightedhype

Real fireworks in a Wal Mart sized Firework candy store.

Californians get arrested accused of terrorism and jailed with any of that.

Here is my favorite. Jumbo Jumpin Jacks !!!!!

Can't have more fun with your clothes on. Not a big thing, but wild!
You light them and throw them on pavement, they go berserk and then take off high in the air with an incredible whistle. Nice thing is they do not blow up, so safe enough around the kids.

a reply to: charlyv

when the kids were young and i wasn't much older, we would always go over to the folks house and me and my brothers would put on a show. motors and and bottle rockets. of course me and my brothers always wound up in a fireworks war,
i would always make sure a had a piece of PVC or CPVC in the trunk. makes a great launcher and give you a little more range.

these are my favorite fireworks scenes from a movie.




skip to the 1:10 mark, couldn't believe that no one posted just that.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

Cool vids. I grew up mostly in Rocky River Ohio, before my family moved back to Boston.

The fireworks we used to be able to get make most things you buy today look like toys, but admittedly, these were dangerous, but when you are a kid, dangerous has different values.

There was one "firework", that was made from a blank-shooting starter pistol, you know the kind that exhausts top of the barrel, instead of down the bore. A contraption was fitted to allow it to fire these 2 inch missiles with reports, that had quick-match for fuses. They sat right in the cradle of the gun, and with a 22 blank (in a revolver), it fired (ignited) the missile any where you pointed it. Need keep the details out of this. They were pretty when you pointed the gun up , like it was intended.

Anyway, you would never walk out of your house with something like this today!

a reply to: charlyv

if we would have had that "firework" when we were kids, no doubt that one of us would have "put their eye out".


a sorta funny story, not that he he got hurt, it was the way it happened. one time when i was about 14 /15 me and a buddy of mine were at his house shooting off fire crackers, lighting them and throwing them at stuff and his little brother who was about 10 at the time wanted to do it to. so we gave him a fire cracker, this was back when black cats were pretty loaded. we were using match books to light them with. he was so excited that he was having a hard time lighting the match. well he got one lit, stuck it to the fuse and then chunked it. in the few seconds as we stood there watching and waiting for the fire cracker to go off, and he was all leaning forward just a focusing on it, there was a boom right next to us. turns out that in his excitement and problem in lighting the match, instead throwing the fire cracker he threw the matches.

he wasn't hurt bad other than his feelings, and the fact we started picking on him about using the wrong hand all the time after that.