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patfan64

patfan64

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Seeing as how we are fast approaching the best Summer holiday, I figured we could get a thread going about it.

Any good stories?

I'll start - I was probably 12 or 13 and with my friend at his sister's beach house. Big family party. My friend had bought a pretty big box of fireworks from the neighborhood thug and he couldn't wait to light them off. His Dad was a real hardass and my friend was told under no uncertain terms was he to light off any fireworks before sundown and without adult supervision.

The open box was under the stairs and he and I were sitting on the stairs talking about stealing a few salutes to light off in the street. He was holding a lit "punk" (some of you old timers might know what that is) while we were talking.

The head of the punk must have fallen off and rolled under the stairs and into the open box of fireworks. All of the sudden, the melee begins - sparks, loud pops and bottle rockets going off. His grandmother screamed and fell trying to get out of the way of a bottle rocket. The charcoal grill (long before propane grills) got knocked over by some guy getting out of the way of roman candle fire. It was actually pretty scary. We were both freaking out.

The box didn't completely go up and as things settled down, I could see him taking a quick inventory. Then his Dad showed up with the hose and doused the box and us along with it. He was pissed and I'm pretty sure the fact that I was there saved my friend from a beating.

We didn't even get to eat.
 
Hopefully JPP logs in...

Seriously, though, back when I was the fire inspector for the town and captain on the FD, I went to a party on the 4th in the town north of mine. The host was concerned that I would call the cops on his fireworks, due to my position. I assured him I wouldn't as it was out of my jurisdiction. I told him, "Just don't set the house on fire." Long story short, the Roman candle display went haywire and started firing everywhere with multiple shots landing on the roof. Panic ensued, running, screaming, etc. I climbed up on the roof (drunk) and had them hand me up a garden hose to make sure there were no embers.
 
No exciting stories. Just a few memories.

MY first date with my wife ended with us watching the Fitchburg 4th of July fireworks (36 years tomorrow that we met) from a quiet parking lot. i guess it was a bit of foreshadowing for a 36 year run (and still counting).

We spent one recent 4th in NYC with our son. We decided not to sit and wait for the fireworks on Manhattan even though we were near the park. The area was insanely crowded, very similar to the Esplanade. We went back to Brooklyn, went to a local bar and we were sitting there when the fireworks started on TV. Then we realized we could hear them just outside the bar. We stepped out and had an absolutely perfect view of them (they were going off on the East River) with just a few other people around us. When it was done, we went back in and the bar gave a shot of Jameson to everyone in the place, on the house.
 
I used to go to the big events down on the Mall. One year I hooked up with this smoking hot English chick and...

...wait, there aren't any kids reading this thread are there? Anyway, behind the shrub line on the banks along the Reflecting Pool during the fireworks.
 
O.Z.O. said:
I used to go to the big events down on the Mall. One year I hooked up with this smoking hot English chick and...

...wait, there aren't any kids reading this thread are there? Anyway, behind the shrub line on the banks along the Reflecting Pool during the fireworks.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you were playing Clue with Austin Powers and Larry Flint.
 
Last year I spent a little on fireworks and one of them was a box that sent flaming balls in the air. I was doing things right, had water nearby and lit the fuse. First ball fired and went up. Something caused the box to move and all of a sudden the box was jumping all over. We hid behind cars until it was clear. We used bricks to keep the next boxes stayed still.
 
I recall many incidents. Many...
This stuff didn't get publicized like it does nowadays.
I was at Boy scout camp up in NH and we ended up in town, I think it was Barnstead NH to watch their fireworks display. The guys setting it off had a mishap and the entire show went off at once. And it was absolutely epic. The noise, the smoke, total insanity. This was probably 1968-69 or so. I don't believe anyone got hurt.
 
So many stupid things.

We would have family parties and one uncle was a BPD detective who would show up with shopping bags full of fireworks for all the kids while we lit them off at an uncle who was an inspector for the BFD. 10-15 kids in the street lighting of fireworks.

One neighbor was an ass so when we did the flaming poo bag a few would be across the street ready to shoot bottle rockets at him when he came out the door.

Trips into Chinatown to by them.

Of course when I was older, At a campground with my kids I saw them putting a barge of pallets into the pond for a bonfire. Notice some stuff at the top and the operator got out of the machine yelling. He walked by and told the older couple next to us that someone put fireworks on the top and to watch out. Short story is they lit fire and the older woman warned took two bottle rockets to her body. This happened while a group of campers who went toNH were lighting off fireworks the bought all with the campgrounds approval. I have never returned to this place.
 
patswin said:
I recall many incidents. Many...
This stuff didn't get publicized like it does nowadays.
I was at Boy scout camp up in NH and we ended up in town, I think it was Barnstead NH to watch their fireworks display. The guys setting it off had a mishap and the entire show went off at once. And it was absolutely epic. The noise, the smoke, total insanity. This was probably 1968-69 or so. I don't believe anyone got hurt.
Click to expand...

Like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndVhgq1yHdA
 
I had my first kiss with the love of my life under the fireworks in Concord, NH on July 4th, 2001. Great night.
 
1987, Saugus speedway in ca. wife (6 weeks pregnant) and I participated in the show. A work buddy was a pyro technician on the side. Wifey's job was to hand me the "bombs" from a crate and I would run them up to the mortar gun or whatever they were called. There where like 10 -15 teams doing this stuff. Was a blast. One "bomb" exploded a bit early and sparks came floating down all around us. We all ran under the tarps. It was interesting. Funny thing, most memorable thing that night was when we were headed back to our vehicle afterwards and ran across an unhappy badger...
 
I would have been more impressed if one of you said you shoved a festival up your anus and Set It Off.

Besides Christmas the 4th of July is my favorite holiday. I've had one occasion back around 1990 where we used to play war with fireworks. Me and my buddies dress up in camo and hide in the woods on each other and shoot bottle rockets Festival balls and Roman candles at each other. I remember one time the cops showed up at the edge of the woods looking for us and we started shooting fireworks at there direction. We then we jumped into a river swam across to my buddies condo complex. No one ever got hurt. I didn't tell my buddy right in the chest with a bottle rocket. He said it kind of stung. I had Festival ball debris hit me. No big deal though. God I miss the days of non political correctness. Now you can't buy a freaking cap gun.
 
il_570xN.386518841_dmdd.jpg



It was HUGE with WAAF music choreographed for the display, so from several vantage
points in the city and beyond people listened on radios while they watched.

They had it one year and learned a lesson. Talk about a gridlock after the show. It took
me hours to get out of the city. Had there been a need for ambulance, police or fire
that night, fuhgeddaboudit.
 
One pretty well stoned summer afternoon a few guys had a whole gross of M80s.
It was decided to open them all up and empty the powder into one of those cool whip Tupperware containers. It was then packed tight with cotton balls and the cover was sealed on with wax and the fuse inserted. Talk about an infernal device. We hung out at a school yard near my house and that evening the ummmm bomb was placed on then pitchers mound in the field and ignited. The explosion and shock wave was mind boggling. We got the hell out of there quick. I ran in the house and my old man was freaking out it shook the house. "Did you hear that?" "No I was in the car and just got dropped off".
Freaking insanity. Can't imagine what would happen today if you got caught doing that.
 
you'd be prosecuted for being a domestic terrorist...

Hell, my buddies and me used to chase each other while shooting roman candles at each other, that shit was fun!
 
One year in college, we lived on the sixth floor of the tallest apartment building on campus, with a field out beyond the parking lot.

During "Hell Week", one of the fraternities thought it would be fun to bring their recruits out to make a ruckus and try to wake the entire building.

We thought it would be fun to launch bottle rockets into their midst from our lofty perch above the festivities.

Should have seen them run for cover.
 
patsRmyboys said:
you'd be prosecuted for being a domestic terrorist...

Hell, my buddies and me used to chase each other while shooting roman candles at each other, that shit was fun!
Click to expand...

This would be much more frowned upon today with more safety concerns for kids, but I was heavily into fireworks growing up in the 70s. We did that with roman candles and shot bottle rockets at each other, putting the sticks in the holes at the ends of whiffle ball bats and aiming them like rifles.

There was an incident with bottle rockets and a bull frog, which I'm not proud of today (and felt guilty about at the time). It was the other kids' idea, but I went along with it.

One great episode that was somewhat Animal House inspired, was when a friend and I left school early and walked home. Then, when our school bus was approaching, we lit smoke bombs in the middle of the intersection and ran behind a row of pine trees, where we'd lined up about 8 packs of bottle rockets on the branches, aimed into the intersection with the fuses turned up, and we ran our lighters down the line and shot them all off. The poor old lady driving the bus slowed for the smoke and then floored it and took off when all the bottle rockets were pinging off the side of the bus and blowing up.

Come to think of it, we did the same thing (without the smoke bombs) to a mailman from the top of one kid's roof when we were in 9th grade.

My final fireworks event was Sophomore year in college. There was a "medievel society" with about 8 members who would stage "jousts" in the middle of our quad, using (I'm not kidding) umbrellas as swords. They called their female members "wenches".

I like to think I'm good about not judging eccentric people, but when my roommate and I were walking back to our dorm and saw this and realized that I had a gross of bottle rockets under my bed that I'd bought during the summer, this was too good a comic opportunity to pass up.

We lined up 48 bottle rockets (4 packs) on the ledge of our 2nd floor window aimed right at them and they were blowing up literally a foot over these kids' heads. They all dove to the ground in a panic and other kids who saw it were laughing their a$$es off. It was perfect until I went to shoot some more bottle rockets at the jousters and when I stood up in the window, the head residence counselor for the quad was standing right below, looking up at me. I got written up and had to have a meeting at the Residence Life office for that.

One of the kids on my hall knew one of the medieval society members and got him to come to lunch with us one day (didn’t realize who I was) and the guy from my hall, who was a funny kid, started asking him about the medieval society, pretending like we were interested, and eventually asked him if anyone had “ever used warfare from another era” against them. Nearly spit out my food, but kept a straight face. It turned out they had “declared war” against us, but hadn’t figured out who we were yet. Later, we joked about further war communiques and battle actions we might pursue in the war, but we never followed through.

I actually have a bunch of other fireworks stories and was way to into horsing around with them (and prank phone calls) when I was growing up, but it ended up being harmless and a lot of fun.
 
mikiemo83 said:
One neighbor was an ass so when we did the flaming poo bag a few would be across the street ready to shoot bottle rockets at him when he came out the door.
Click to expand...

When we tried the flaming poo bag on a neighbor who we thought had told a friend's mother about a party we'd had when his parents were away, we kind of overdid it, filling a shopping bag with 3 weeks of my Malamute's $hit from the backyard. Then, we were worried that it wouldn't burn, so we soaked the bag with WD-40. That made it so flammable that when we lit the bag, the neighbor that opened the door didn't step on the poo because he was looking at a 5 foot wall of flame that was nearly licking the roof of their porch.
 
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