Little kids love fireworks

[jimcav]

I confess that fireworks have lost some luster for me, especially fighting crowds to get a view etc; but we were lucky enough to be able to see a pretty good show from our front yard. My 4 yr old sat on a little bench with his brother and in addition to the stereotypical ohh and ahh, he also categorized each and every firework, calling them:
bomb blower
shooting star
jet fighter
waterfall
and ultimate firework
it was in fact a decent short description of the types and I got a huge kick out of it. I don't know why i am sharing this, except I had never heard a kid do that. And of course my title should be "most" kids as I remember when my niece was 4 she would scream and cry when fireworks went off.
hope everyone had a good 4th and enjoyed fireworks or something.

[flydhest]

moved from classifieds.

[jimcav]

moved from classifieds.
that was poor attention to detail on my part. I should stop looking at classifieds so much

[chismog]

Your post got me thinking. When I was a kid we used to spend all our allowance at the fireworks stand, come home and put on a show for each other. It was so fun- a little bit of "playing with fire" mixed with holiday spirit. You learned pretty quickly what was dangerous and stupid, and what was fun. As I was watching the fireworks I thought back to this very thing and how much fun it was as a kid.

Fast forward, now I'm a parent of a couple little girls. They spent the 4th with my parents and my mom broke out some sparklers. Neither of my girls had ever seen or even heard of them, and they were mesmerized with drawing in the air with them, etc. Imagine how they'd react to some roman candles or bottle rockets!

We live in California. I accept there's serious wildfire danger here, but I think it's a pretty sad state of affairs when a kid doesn't even know what a sparkler is and you can't buy them anywhere. Wildfires still happen even without fireworks, and probably most fireworks are used in a reasonably responsible way.

Kinda makes me sad at the state of affairs in the good ol' USA. We're killing fun for all because of a few idiots- or just the potential of a few?

[SamIAm]

We're killing fun for all because of a few idiots- or just the potential of a few?

Managing to the lowest common denominator is no way to live in my opinion.

I live in Ga. and loved fireworks as a kid. In fact we formed a little club and one of the initiation requirements was to hold a firecracker in your hand while it went off (you were allowed to use this big ski glove we had found). It stung, but not so bad.

Ga. has outlawed the use of the fun fireworks, i.e the ones that explode, but that doesn't stop us on the 4th and New Years. Even amidst warnings on the local TV stations that the police were going to crack down this year, the neighborhood was alive and alight for hours on end and the kids and adults loved it.

[jimcav]

i grew up blowing things up with black cats. yet my boys have never lit any type of firework. At our last assignment, in WA state, we were just a few miles from 2 indian reservations, where apparently anything can be sold as far as fireworks. We had 2 families in our subdivision that had some sort of a competition going on--in fact this year the community newletter had a request that families limit displays to 30 minutes and not later than 11pm. Seriously, the things that went off in my neighborhood rivalled or surpassed most town displays i'd seen--you'd hear that artillery "wump" followed by the huge burst of colors. So, I can understand the rules for safety and fire, and also understand that enforcement is going to be pretty lax in many places.
I may have to revisit my youth--and blow up some army men next year with my boys

[Karin Kirk]

Kinda makes me sad at the state of affairs in the good ol' USA. We're killing fun for all because of a few idiots- or just the potential of a few?

It just depends on where you live, that's all. Here fireworks are legal and outside city limits there are no limitations on the dates and hours one can shoot them off. As a result, 4th of July has become my Least Favorite Holiday.

So we are not "killing the fun" for everyone - backyard fireworks are alive and well in some places.

Oh - although one year someone's fireworks display was really terrific - rivaling the one in town. And then a rocket failed to launch and the thing exploded on the ground. In a few short moments, a grass fire broke out and began to spread. I have to say it was all pretty exciting. They got the fire out, the fire dept came and all was good.