Photos of fireworks stand
Our pal Stefan took photos of a fireworks stand. Fun!
I grew up in New York State, where even sparklers were illegal. Firecrackers, bottle rockets, and other goodies will be sold out of car trunks. Scoring even a pack of firecrackers was a big win.In Oregon, stuff that explodes or shoots into the air is illegal, but in the week before the Fourth firework stands are plentiful and stuffed with eye candy.
the latest
latest episodes
Most everything is illegal in PA, too. The stands are still full of stuff, though - it's amazing what packaging can do for making smoke bombs into 80 different products. Nice photo!
I love looking at fireworks! I've been helping the Saint Sparky Society of the United States handout fireworks to needy naughty boys and girls since 1999. Find out more here http://www.allenbukoff.com/fireworks/index.html and VIEW PICTURES OF THE SMALL SCALE FIREWORKS we've handed out every year by clicking on the years index!
http://heavenlystarsfireworks.com/faqs.htm
You might want to inform my neighbor of that. We had a good display of small mortar launched fireworks down the street, in addition to a marine parachute flare. Pretty impressive, but you can get some pretty good neighborhood displays going if everyone works on contributing oddball and different stuff. If you have the right stuff to sprinkle on it, a whitepowder snake can do the trick, though it does leave a nice persistent black line in the pavement.
Just come up to Vancouver (Washington), none of that stuff is illegal here.
You mean that in some states fireworks are illegal but people can buy guns and rifles?!
Sparklers are not illegal in NYS.
Here in lovely Montana, it sounds like a war zone from now until a week after the 4th. Between most everything being legal, and abundant Indian reservations, you can get almost anything. My dog may need a tranq before its all over.
@Francesco> Given that fireworks aren't afforded protection under the Constitution (more correctly, the second amendment to the Constitution), that is correct.
Of course, you should note that restrictions between the two vary widely between states.
I was in a fireworks store in Nevada once, at a gas station (!!!) - one third of the store sold fireworks, one third of the store sold cigarettes and matches by the case, and one third of the store sold liquor and a bit of food. I was afraid to ask for a hot meal.
Bottle rockets are explicitly illegal in South Carolina (where pretty much everything else goes). What's up with that? (I used to keep a "bouquet" of bottle rockets in a vase.)
Also, M-80s and cherry bombs are illegal due to Federal law (Child Protection Act of 1966).
Me too. I've spent hours looking over everything in the Shelton Fireworks warehouses. Most of the marketing/packaging is like having a slice of Idiocracy (brought to you by Carl's Jr.) today, though.
Fireworks = sweet, sweet freedom.
"In Oregon, stuff that explodes or shoots into the air is illegal"
"You might want to inform my neighbor of that"
yeah...try riding your bike through outer SE Portland at around 10pm on the 4th. Might be the closest I ever get to war.
Here in the land of guns and Bibles (otherwise known as Mississippi), I can count at least 10 known fireworks stands within a half-mile radius of my home. Of course, M-80's are illegal, but if you give the Fireworks stand owner the right nod and handshake, you can get those too!
Around this time of year, The Oregonian runs ads for The Bomber Brothers chain of firework stands. They're all over the river in Vancouver WA, as Lonin (#5) notes. The ads have maps, and warnings next to certain products: "NOT FOR OREGON RESIDENTS!"
Even the Bomber Brothers don't sell firecrackers or rockets!
#2: "I've been helping the Saint Sparky Society of the United States handout fireworks to needy naughty boys and girls since 1999."
YOU ARE THE WINGS BENEATH MY WINGS!
#1: Back in college, my friends and I would drive to a firework distributor in central PA. The place was strictly off limits to PA residents . . . they checked IDs at the door. It wasn't the proprietor's business if we were from NY. We went home with boxes full of stuff.
And then, on the Fourth, we'd go to the beach at Rocky Point and shoot fireworks at each other. We had gloves and eye protection and armor of sorts, but burns and bangs were inevitable. (Hint: Nothing stops an infantry charge like a Saturn Missile Battery!) One guy stuck a gross of bottle rockets in the loose sand and ignite them simultaneously with the help of a lighter and a can of starting ether.
Honestly, a few years of that unrestricted bounty burned me out. Pardon the pun. I don't think I bought fireworks until I moved to the Portland area eight years ago.
#7: "Sparklers are not illegal in NYS."
Might have been a county thing. I grew up in Nassau, where sparklers were forbidden. I'm pretty sure the same was true in Suffolk, further out on Long Island.
In the Bay Area, there's one town (that I know of) that allows sale of CA-legal stuff. San Bruno. I think there's a BART station there, if anyone needs to stock up!
You can buy fireworks at the grocery store here in CT (in fact the first thing you see walking in the store these days is a display of em, due to the imminent holiday). Nothing as creative as the above display, however.
I'll confirm the sparkler trouble for Suffolk County on Long Island. Some varieties can be found, but they tend to be the bland, low metal content fiber-based style that is pretty much a dressed up torch.
Ooh! We can use snakes! Wow, look at that little black pellet grow...into a slightly larger black blob! Exciting!
I have many stories from my youth of my father coming home from Chinatown with new "luggage." After the crackdowns began, the only effective way to buy those friendly explosives was to shift the packaging, and thus the focus. After a long day at work, dad would return from the city with said luggage. Lucky for us, the friendly salespeople forgot to remove several pounds of fireworks they previously stored in this nice collapsible Shamsonite suitcase!
Good times would follow.
I love visiting the in-laws in rural Malaysia at Chinese New Year.
Fireworks are illegal there and smuggled supplies from China are sold from private homes. But the only enforcement in their village is a single, frustrated Malay policeman on a dinky 'wasp in a bottle' engine moped. So you can get a hell of a lot of gunpowder burnt while he's a few blocks away and still have time to stand by looking all innocent when he comes your way. Then it's the other side of the village turn to light up, so off he buzzes to investigate them... ..and so on for half the night.
Fireworks *and* petty police baiting together, it can't be beat.
Fireworks are legal here in Indiana. We usually arm ourselves with the largest mortars we can afford for the 4th.
You mean that in some states fireworks are illegal but people can buy guns and rifles?!
Then buy the fireworks and promise to shoot only people with them: you'll be fine.
But Vanwall,
If you decided that that was going to be your LAST meal...glorious!
I was in Gallup, NM yesterday and saw some interesting packaging with Britney Spears's face on them, as well as Easy-E of Niggaz with Attitude.
http://www.tian.cc/2009/06/fireworks-at-gallup-nm.html
#24: Holy crap! It's like a special line of fireworks especially labeled to appeal to drunk bubbas!