Post #160422 by freddiefreelance on Fri, May 20, 2005 2:33 PM

Growing up in NYC the Fourth of July sounded like a warzone. Me & my friends would spend literally hundreds of dollars between us buying illegal fireworks; Everyone was always on the lookout for anyone who's Dad or Uncle or older Brother was traveling to a state that sold fireworks and then trying to get them to pick us up a few mats of firecrackers or a couple dozen color rockets. By the beginning of June there would be a smattering of firecrackers or bottle rockets going off throughout the day, slowly building up over the next month to a crescendo of explosions, whistles, bangs & flashes of color everywhere on the night of the Fourth. As soon as it became dark enough we'd bring our parents & neighbors out by the street & put on a display of fireworks that could take 1/2 an hour to complete: from firecrackers & bottle rockets, to ground bloom flowers, set pieces & St Cathrine wheels, to fountains, color rockets & small mortars, we'd actually put on a pretty good show for a bunch of kids.

Unfortunately our focus on fireworks eventually started to turn it into a business crossed with extreme danger (Dynamite & TNT? Bulk deals with crooked cops? You bet!), but I still love that smell of fireworks on the wind just after the sun sets in the evening every Fourth of July.