Save this to your disk using the "Save As..." command. 
Then go to your word processing program, and open
the file "stories2000.txt" which is now on your hard disk.
Set the font and size to whatever is comfortable for you, 
and print it out on your printer for more comfortable reading


"How I Spent My 4th of July" (2000 edition) 

Written by fireworks lovers around the U. S. A. 
Compiled by Bob Weaver
http://fireworksland. com

These stories were sent to me by e-mail in July 2000. Each story describes what that person did with fireworks to celebrate Independence Day in the United States, on July 4, 2000. 

You can print this out on your printer to make reading easier. 

Several of the stories contain language which is not suitable for children. Please do not let children read through this collection of stories. 

Each person that wrote a part of this owns the copyright to the part they wrote. Feel free to print this out on your printer, for your own reading, but you can't publish it, or distribute copies of it, or put it on any web site or put it on any computer besides your own. Of course, you CAN do anything you want with the part of it that YOU wrote. To avoid any violation of copyright law, please do not publish, copy, post or transmit this text to anyone else. Commercial use of this material is impossible, due to copyright laws. 

There is no significance to the order that the stories appear in. The stories appear in completely random order. No editing has been done to the the stories at all, except to remove any names of people unless specifically requested to leave the name in. No attempt has been made to correct any spelling errors or grammatical errors, of which there are many. In some stories you will need to just accept bad spelling and grammar to read a good story. 

No attempt has been made to verify the accuracy of any statement made in any of these stories. Any statement made is to be considered strictly as the opinion of the author of the statement. Nothing in any of these stories should be necessarily considered an endorsement of any product, service, person, business or organization. Any statement about the quality of a particular product or recommendation of a particular business is the opinion of the person who wrote the statement. 

Readers are cautioned that fireworks on the commercial market may not necessarily perform the same when purchased the following year, even if the name and number of the item is the same. Some fireworks are manufactured to be consistent in performance from one year to the next. But sadly, the factories do not always make every item exactly the same as they did the previous year. This is particularly common with so-called "overloaded" items, they are often much weaker the following year. Therefore, even if an item is called "great" one year, it may not necessarily perform exactly the same the next year. 

There may be some techniques described in this document that should only be conducted by professional pyrotechnicians, and that the average person should never attempt to do. Any reader of this material is cautioned that this information is for the entertainment of the reader only, and it does not constitute instructions or directions of any technique or method, either generally or specifically. There is no guarantee that any firework or other device, any technique or any method mentioned in any of these stories will produce the results described in the story. 

The manufacture, sale, transportation, storage and use of fireworks is inherently hazardous. Readers are cautioned to form their own opinion about any information contained herein, and to exercise caution and judgment when working with any kind of pyrotechnics. In the United States, large firecrackers known commonly as "M-80s" are illegal, as are any firecrackers which contain more than 50 milligrams of pyrotechnic content. Even though these types of firecrackers may be mentioned in the stories below, this does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation that you buy, make or use any such devices. In fact, we recommend that you stay far away from M-80s and any other illegal fireworks, and only buy or use legal fireworks. 

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this. If you wrote one of these stories, I appreciate you taking the time to share your story with other fireworks enthusiasts like yourself. 

Bob Weaver
http://fireworksland. com

Here are the stories.......

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Here's the story! First off I live in a three-story apartment complex. My apartment is the one directly above the managers. I am on the second floor. We have a balcony and the managers below have extended out their "backyard" about 10 feet. A netting material covers their "backyard". With all that said, here's the story. 

Saturday night I was somewhat bored. Occasionally my wife and I sit on the balcony lighting off sparklers and smoke bombs. They are quiet enough and don't draw much attention. 

Recently I unwound a string of firecrackers. They are fun to light off individually, but I would never do this at my apartment for fear of being caught. Well I decided to pull off the paper wicks and give them a light. Wow! Those little suckers fly around pretty quickly. Enough for a one second thrill and enough to make you duck as they go airborne. Then I'd snap the cracker in half and pour the contents out on the porch and take a match to it. A bright flash! Sometimes a perfectly formed ring of smoke to follow. 

Soon my wife got involved. There we both sat inside the apartment at the edge of our sliding glass door making tiny piles of powder and watching them flash. Then we took a bottle rocket apart and it contains a bit more powder than a typical cracker. We piled it up and then lit it. Woa! The smoke from that tiny hill went straight in to the house. We were gagging and coughing pretty good, not to mention laughing intensely. 

After a few wicks flew around, one larger one flew off the porch and actually put a hole the size of a dime in our manager's netting. We're hoping they won't suspect anything. Now for the finale. I took an electronic bomb apart. Pretty interesting design if you've never done so. There is a thick fuse that runs the length of the barrel down to a pill containing black powder. When I say pill, I mean it looked like a capsule you would take for the flu. It can be pulled apart and there sits the powder. 

Anyway there was a lot, and I mean a lot of a black colored powder up towards the top end of the barrel. Well we nicely poured it out on the porch. I knew it was probably the crackling part of the electronic bomb, but I didn't think it would do what it did next. 

We took our match and set it aflame. Placed it onto the spread out pile and suddenly a fast paced eruption of sparks and crackle filled our porch. We sat in awe, our jaws on the floor and shut the door! My wife took off belly laughing into the bedroom while I, knowing for sure the managers heard and would come to find out what happened, grabbed the huge 70 pound box and dragged it into the back room. The managers never came up, but we continued to laugh endlessly. Needless to say, we stopped our entertainment for the evening. 

Yes, I know it was foolish and something we'll never do again, but this memory will be one that we cherish forever in our adventures with fire!

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HI MY NAME IS [name] AND I WANT TO TELL YOU A STORY ABOUT MY DAD WHEN HE WAS LITTLE, HIS 4TH OF JULY AND WHY I THINK CHERRY BOMBS SHOULD NOT BE SOLD OR USED, WELLONE DAY MY DAD STOLE A WHOLE BAG OF FIRE WORKS WITH HIS BROTHER from some little kid AND WAS USEING THEM, HE FOUND A RED SMOKE BOMB "he thought that, that is what is was anyway" and he lit it and smoke bombs they would hold in thair hands those days so he was holding it and when it did not smoke he looked at his brother and new and threw it but it was too late it blew about a foot away from his hand and blew the tips of his fingers off and he had too go to the hospital and they gave him on that hand a stich on each finger except his ring finger they gave him 3 stiches so that is why i think they should not be sold or used the end	but will you put my story on your web site to show little kids that that is not cool they could get hurt!!!!

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Everything was ok with me BUT NEW YORK SUCKS nowadays if you love fireworks!!!!!! Bronx. . Didn't get arrested but the cops saw me holding a magic stick and came around a couple of times. In the day i used up a couple of 100 firecrackers/whistlers. night time i started off with some ground blooms, then off to others. I particularly enjoyed: 2 cool ya gotta say it twice, Daggerfall was real nice also artillery rockets only used 1 (really pretty). I didn't even use have of the stuff like the mortars and shells tanks and a lot more stuff i got. Now I got over $200 worth of fireworks left and don't know what to do with em!!!!!!! Enjoy


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HEY MY FIREWORKS SHOW SUCKED	HOW WAS YOURS????	I ABOUT KILLED MYSELF 3 TIMES. . . . . ONE SHELL WENT ABOUT FIVE FEET I THE AIR AND EXPLODED. . . . . . ANOTHER SHELL EXPLODED IN THE TUBE AND SENT SHIT FLYING EVERYWERE. . . . . . . . . AND SOME CAKE TIPED VER AND SHOT COMETS AT ME. . . . . . SOUNDS LIKE FUN HUH?? ANYWAY IT WAS FUN BECAUSE I HAD ALOT OF FIRECRAKERS. . BE SURE TO TELL ME HOW YOUR 4TH WAS	SEE YA

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hey! this is my story!!
First. . . we were lighting off firecrackers and bottle rockets. One of the rockets got pointed at the parents and blew up on someones are. . . . everyone got all pissed about it and made us go to the nearby school and light them off there. so when we were there. . . I went on the roof of the school cause we were having a bottle rocket war. someone called the cops on me and they came and i got busted. well thats our forth of july. plus all the fireworks we lit off in our cul da sac which was REALLY fun and amazing. bye

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I didnt do much this year, I just shot a little "light one time" rack display consisting of 8 - 1. 75" shells, 10 - 3", 10 - 4", and 10 - ti salutes, along with 2 - silvery swallows (class B) and one 100 - shot thunderking. It went great. Hope you had a blast as I am sure you did. 

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Well we all hade a great day. MY daughter has a tough time on the forth because when she was 3 years old we were out lighting ground bloomers and some drunk jerk walked up and said check out my ground bloomer and tossed it right in front of us and it was an M-80, IT'S JERKS LIKE THAT THAT MAKE IT ILLEGAL FOR ME TO HAVE M-80'S. Any ways my two favorite fireworks this year were the BIG BAD ASS MORTAR TUBES they were something else, also a small mini tube called THUNDER KING they were very loud. We had some people come out by the school parking lot that we did our fireworks at an cheer us on but at 11:00 someone yelled at us if we didn't stop they would call the cops, so we did and cleaned up our mess (I always clean up afterwards) and went home and called it a night. The 4th is my favorite holiday and I wish the jerks of the world would quite messing it up for us responsible folks. I do ply with fireworks that are not legal but I do it with respect to others and always in a safe place, I ALWAYS BUY THEM FROM A REPUTABLE DEALER OR A CATALOG COMPANY. That's my story in the short, hope you enjoy it. ps if you have any more questions feel free to ask. THANK YOU THE COOKIE MAN 

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My show was an absolute success with the exception of my camcorder not working at showtime. The humidity was so bad in St. Louis that condensation formed inside the camera and made it inoperable. I started making a tape to send you before I took everything out to the shoot site, but that's all I got. . . no show, no set-up. I was so furious. 

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Well, here is a quick summary of mine. 
Woke up around 9:00, lade in bed till about 9:30. I've already had the fireworks setup for the night, so I just, well, stayed in bed because I really didn't have to much to do. And yes this is in Ga., so, this, I hope, will stay away from the Cops. I had around 400 Black Cat firecrackers, 200 Cherry Bomb bottle rockets, 20 of those bottle rocket type rockets that shoot up pretty far and explode admitting a shower of sparks in many colors and sounds, I also had some other stuff, that actually lasted longer than the cities fireworks, which, well, sucked (pardon the language), we (a couple of family members, 1 or 2, and about 1 or 2 friends, searched just about an hour for somewhere to park, this is at Albany Ga. But I guess you could say my end of it, what I put on, was OK, I wanted it to be bigger, but there always is the issue of money. Oh well. 

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I BOUGHT MOST OF MY FIREWORKS FROM FIREWORKS WORLD, IN ST. LOUIS MO. THEY HAVE THE BEST PRICES!!! ANYWAY I GOT ALOT OF MY FIREWORKS FOR HOME THE FIST TIME I WENT, I GOT A BOX OF 36 DOUBLE BREAK SHELLS FOR ABOUT $70 OR SOMEWERE AROUND THERE, AND I GOT SOME LITTLE STUFF TOO. I GOT SOME CAKES AND STUFF. . WITCH WERE REALLY COOL. I GOT 2 100 STURN BATTERIES THINGYS WITCH LASTED A REAL LONG TIME. . THOSE ARE A MUST GET. . . I ALSO GOT SOME COMET CAKE THING WITCH WAS A ALSO REALLY GOOD. . . I GOT ME ALOT OF FIRECRACKERS AND BLACK CAT BOTTLE ROCKETS. . . . . I SPENT OVER A 100 DOLLARS THAT NIGHT. I ALOS GOT SOME 6 PACKS OF AREAIL SHELLS TO GO ALONG WITH THE BIG ONES. THOSE WERE REALLY COOL. . I SHOT THEM OFF A COUPLE NIGHTS BEFORE THE 4TH, BUT EVERY NIGHT I SHOT TO MANY OFF SO I WOULD HAVE TO END UP REPLACING THEM SO I WOULD HAVE ENOUGH FOR THE 4TH. . . . . . THEN A COUPLE DAYS BEFORE THE 4TH. . . . I WEN OUT TO GET MORE FIREWORKS WITHC I WOULD BE SHOOTING OFF FOR MY HOLE FAMILY. I GOT GOT 36 SHELLS ALONG WITH SOME STUFF I BROUGHT FROM HOME. . SO I WAS LINED UP FOR A LONG SHOW. . THAT NIGHT I DINT DO TO MUCH PREPEATION I STARTED GETTING READY FOR THE SHOW ABOUT AN HOUR BEFORE. . . I HAD TO DEAL WITH THE RAIN TOO, BUT IT WAS JUST A DRIZZL SO IT WASNT THAT BIG OF A DEAL. ANOTHER PROBLEM WAS THE MISQUTIOS, MY FMAILY WAS BITCHIN THE HOLE TIME THE WERE GETTING BITTIN UP BY THE BUGS SO I HAD TO START THE SHOW A LITTLE BIT BEFORE IT WAS DARK. . . . SO THAT KINDA SUCKED. . WHEN I DID START EVERYHTING WAS GOOD FOR AWHILE UNTIL THE SHELLS STARTED SCREWING UP. . . ONE OF THEM WENT UP ABOUT 10 FEET AND EXPLOIDED. . . ONE OF THEM EXPLOIDED IN THE TUBE AND SHIT WENT FLYING EVRYWERE. . . AND RUINED THE TUBE SO I HAD TO USE MY OTHER TUBES TO USE UP ALL THE SHELLS THAT BELONG TO THAT TUBE. SO THAT WAS KINDA DANGEROUSE PUTTING ALOT OF SHELLS IN THE SAME TUBE. BUT EVERYHTING WENT OK. . . I GOT PISSED OFF AND LEFT WITHA BOUT 30 SHELLS STILL LEFT SO I WENT HOME AND SHOOT THEM OFF FOR MY NEIBORS. . SO THAT WAS THE FUNNEST PART OF THE NIGHT. . . . . . THATS ABOUT IT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

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Hi bob, we had a great 4th of July in Alhambra California, The city allows fireworks and the kids had a great time. The colors this year in the fireworks were awsome. Alhambra did not have a firework show last year due to park construction at Almansor Park but this year they went all out and made up for what they did not have last year. they started off with cannons that sent a shock wave right thru you, it made you proud to be an american and really enjoy the holiday. Then they had wonderfully colored displays and the finale was just fabulous. I wish you could have seen it, God Bless America and Alhambra, California. !!!! 

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My 4th of July was awesome!!! I spent appoximately 986.00 on good american fireworks. Well actually most of them where made in China!!! My dad gave me most of the money but i got the rest from mowin lawns. Alright to the best consumer fireworks display in Oklahoma!! I started to buy fireworks on the 15th of june, the first day the castle of myskogee is open to sell fireworks "the best place in oklahoma to buy fireworks" I bought about 300.00 dollars the first time i went there. Then i went a secound time and spent another 400.00, and then a third and final time and spent 250.00. Its alot of money to spend oin fireworks but to the 80+ friends, family guests and Tulsa, Oklahoma's own channel 2 news!!! it was well worth it!! Set up was hard at first, since im only 15 years old i had a few problems with knowing how to connect the visco to my artillery shells, i dotn have to much experience. I got approximately 300 artillery shells. I got canister shells, single break shells, double break shells, triple break shells, and plastic canister rocket shells. I got about 30 cakes. Ranging from Black cat to brothers to no names. I got about 40 roman candles. Ranging from chirping orioles to texas cyclone to comest spinners to blue thunder. I got a few fountains, i only liked Brothers Wonders of the world!! It was a good one, if your lookin for a realk cheap quality fountain get the CHKOO, its a great value. I got a 5 foot by 7 foot plywood board to put my mortars on. I bought HDPE piping which worked perfectly i got 50 tubes all 1 foot and 3 inches. I put artillery shells together and i had one fuse that let 15 triple break shels go up at once it was a very beautiful site. I definelty recommend connecting artillery shell fuses to gethere to have multiple shells go up a tonece. It is so wel worth it. I tried that thing you do with repeater to make them all go up at once and it worked!!! I didn't really ike it thought, the sky was kinda cluddered with the same thing. 
NOW to the items i got
This is about 3/4th of what i got i will not list the individuall artillery shells just the box name here we go woth the fireworks list with some descriptions:
BC= BLACK CAT B= BROTHERS
Multi shots:
BC Radiant night. beautiful 18 shot angled cake 
BC sky party. Beautifull 18 shot especially for the price 
BC FOUR SEASONS 12 shot angled cake green red gold and blue triple shots 
BC Crakling Golden Palm Lots of Gold palm trees 
BC Crackling Sky Barrage
BC Loud and Lavendar Great purplr cake
BC Lightning Storm Very Loud will wake the neighbors up 
BC The Beast Silver comets w/ silver breaks 
BC Aerial Oasis Green and Purle breaks
BC Dazzling sky poppers
BC Lustrous Light Very good lots of silver breaks 
BC Old Faithfull
BC Pyro Portrait
BC golden jublille Big Big Gold breaks and loud 
BC Aerial Doub;e Deckers Goldne Palms and great big mines goes kinda fast but good
B China Dragon
b Delta Force
B Wild Boar
B Tower forgot what hte individual one where called but there pretty 
B Battle of the waterloo
B Great Naval Battle
WOW 18 shot Was awesome
Dirty Dancing the best 12 shot u can buy!!! 

Reloadable artillery shells
B- Airhawk artillery shells nice plastic canister shells kinda small breaks though
BC 3rd Generation Great double breaks prob, the best double breaks you can get for class c fireworks
BC Pro-Mag Great selection od shells especially the 8 canisters you get with it
BC magnum Canister shells
BC Cannon Shells= Triple break shells these are in my opinion the best shells
Triology Not as good as the black cat triple break shells, these are also triple breaks
Goloiath Extreme= Really good selection
Excalibur a good 24 pack of canisters
BC 44 MM these are pretty cool they just came out 
Just2good These are double breaks, there good cause the secound shells has a 2 sec delay on it
Dirty Dozen a 12 pack of 6 canister and 6 artillery shells, the caisters ones are especially good
Red Devil Artillery shells, These where ok nothin like the picture on the side of the box potrayed!!

Thats all of the fireworks i wrote down i do have picture of all of it and i have it taped!!!!

Plus my uncle suprisingly brought some sort of illegal fireworks, much more powerfull than cherry bombs and m-60 or m-80 these where like about 2 inches lond and had a red fuse they where very cool, i did those last after the news station left, you could feel them they where awesome 

Plus i bought about 800 feet of visco fuse and about a 1/3 pound of black powder

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Well my friends and I weren't able to get to any shows on the fourth but we had some of our own stuff. I live in an area where most fireworks are illegal, up in northern california. Well we lit off a couple off bottle rockets (yes I know they're illegal) and went on our way. I had about a dozen more and some firecrackers and roman candles on me also. As we were walking through my school, we saw a cop drive up. I quickly tossed my fireworks into a bush and went up to the cop. He asked us what we were doing there and we replied "Just bringing a friend home" which we were. He told us that we were not allowed to be on school property at that time so we left. As he drove away, I quickly ran back and grabbed my fireworks from the bush (this took some serious effort in the dark). I saw the cop sitting in the parking lot and so I stayed out of sight. On the way back to my house, we saw someone talking to the cop in the parking lot. I quickly walked away and out of sight. As we were walking down my road back to my house we saw a car slowly coming over the hill nad we were sure it was the cop again. I edged my way to the side of the street with the fireworks under my shirt. As the cop approached, he asked us if we had any firecracker sort other illegal fireworks we said no and he drove off down the road. he turned around and came back down the road. This time he would surely see the large bulge in my shirt from the roman candle, so once again, I tossed them into a bush. He came by and asked what I toosed into the bush. I said "nothing, I was picking some berries" Somewhat frustrated the cop drove off. I went back and retrieved my fireworks happy that I was not caught and managed to keep all of my fireworks.  We did a big show at my house we set up ten racks with 1. 75 shells and ten with 2 1/2 shells. it went off well and i have video of it. the cops came but did not get anything. well happy 4th

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I hope ur 4th july was good because i was in NyC and i had to go to china town to buy fireworks, even though it took a long time to get them it paid off. I bought like 10 M-80, 250 whistlers, 300 bang bangs, and i dont know da other ones names but My 4th july was good. 
Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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My 4th sucked. i had no fireworks. i am waiting for the catolgogs to come in the mail, and to see my friends that have connections. the only thing i had was sparklers. it sucked. that was the only thing i did. but on the next 4th i will be loaded with fireworks. i am going to stock up all year. 

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I live in Lawrence Kansas amd have been fascinated by fireworks my whole 24 years of life. Since my last year of high school my friend and I would make special trips to Missouri to by display or 1. 3G fireworks from a guy who sold them under the table. We didn't know anything about differences between the fireworks other than these ones we were getting packed a lot more punch. We typically could only afford a couple hundred dollars in fireworks a piece so we really weren't getting a lot. However the few items that we got like the thunder kings, battle of colors, and 3" salutes really made the crowd cheer. Anyway, a few years went by and by last year I spent about $800 myself on the display fireworks. They were mainly the same as I listed above with a few more goodies that the guy had. I talked to the same guy a few weeks before the 4th and gave him a list of what I wanted. I drove up on the 2nd to pick them up and I found out he sold everything already. There was a mix up in the date of pick up and he figured I backed out so he sold all the 1.3's he had. I was pissed! All I could think about was what to do. I drove 2 hours back home and scrambled to get a hold of a friend in Nebraska. He had left town for the holiday and couldn't be reached. We were having a big party at our house lots of people were expecting to be there to see my big fireworks. It wasn't gonna happen! So I thought of making the best of the worst. My all time favorites are the mortars and repeaters, and they seem to excite the crowd the more that go off. I went to the fireworks stand outside of town and loaded up with a cople hundred mortars and some 25 shot deals. All my friends planned on briging stuff so I figured it was enough. I read the article sent today about having a seperate tube for each ball but I didn't have time to make a couple hundred tubes. I ended up have sixteen tubes, and knowing they wouldn't last for all the mortars I duck taped the heck out of them and drilled them to a board in groups of four. I then taped the fuses together in groups of four. I had a gas torch I used to ignite all the fuses quickly and sixteen of these going off wasn't to bad. I sure lots of people have done this before, and I'm not putting on big shows, I just like to please the friends we have over. I happened to look up fireworks on the internet and learned quite a bit about the differences, having and obtaining permits and other good stuff. The thing that really blew me out of the water was the prices I was paying in Missouri compared to what I could buy it for if I had a permit and bought it off the net. For instance. I payed about $30 for each thunder King, and $15 for each 3" mortar. Yes that does seem pricey, but to a kid who knew nothing about these things, and no other place to go to get them, it was worth it. I found at one site I could get a case of 12 thunder kings for $63. That is just over 5 bucks each. The mortars were about 5 bucks each as well. I couldn't believe how much they were raking in on these things. I know they got to make money and they were selling these illegally but that is ridiculous. So I have decided to apply for a permit to buy display fireworks myself and save a lot of money. Also I'm sure ther is more good stuff out there that i've never seen that I'd like to get a hold of. So, starting today, I am starting to prepare to have the best show I can for next year. 

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I live in Lawrence Kansas and have been fascinated by fireworks my whole 24 years of life. Since my last year of high school my friend and I would make special trips to Missouri to by display or 1. 3G fireworks from a guy who sold them under the table. We didn't know anything about differences between the fireworks other than these ones we were getting packed a lot more punch. We typically could only afford a couple hundred dollars in fireworks a piece so we really weren't getting a lot. However the few items that we got like the thunder kings, battle of colors, and 3" salutes really made the crowd cheer. Anyway, a few years went by and by last year I spent about $800 myself on the display fireworks. They were mainly the same as I listed above with a few more goodies that the guy had. I talked to the same guy a few weeks before the 4th and gave him a list of what I wanted. I drove up on the 2nd to pick them up and I found out he sold everything already. There was a mix up in the date of pick up and he figured I backed out so he sold all the 1. 3's he had. I was pissed! All I could think about was what to do. I drove 2 hours back home and scrambled to get a hold of a friend in Nebraska. He had left town for the holiday and couldn't be reached. We were having a big party at our house lots of people were expecting to be there to see my big fireworks. It wasn't gonna happen! So I thought of making the best of the worst. My all time favorites are the mortars and repeaters, and they seem to excite the crowd the more that go off. I went to the fireworks stand outside of town and loaded up with a cople hundred mortars and some 25 shot deals. All my friends planned on briging stuff so I figured it was enough. I read the article sent today about having a seperate tube for each ball but I didn't have time to make a couple hundred tubes. I ended up have sixteen tubes, and knowing they wouldn't last for all the mortars I duck taped the heck out of them and drilled them to a board in groups of four. I then taped the fuses together in groups of four. I had a gas torch I used to ignite all the fuses quickly and sixteen of these going off wasn't to bad. I sure lots of people have done this before, and I'm not putting on big shows, I just like to please the friends we have over. I happened to look up fireworks on the internet and learned quite a bit about the differences, having and obtaining permits and other good stuff. The thing that really blew me out of the water was the prices I was paying in Missouri compared to what I could buy it for if I had a permit and bought it off the net. For instance. I payed about $30 for each thunder King, and $15 for each 3" mortar. Yes that does seem pricey, but to a kid who knew nothing about these things, and no other place to go to get them, it was worth it. I found at one site I could get a case of 12 thunder kings for $63. That is just over 5 bucks each. The mortars were about 5 bucks each as well. I couldn't believe how much they were raking in on these things. I know they got to make money and they were selling these illegally but that is ridiculous. So I have decided to apply for a permit to buy display fireworks myself and save a lot of money. Also I'm sure ther is more good stuff out there that i've never seen that I'd like to get a hold of. So, starting today, I am starting to prepare to have the best show I can for next year. 

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I started the day by lighting a celebration roll in my backyard!!! I had a cook out scheduled for that evening and i wanted to have the best display in my neighbor hood. I had started my firework shopping back in January when i took a trip to Missouri so I had alot of fireworks, well over $1,000 worth. I had fused together artillary shells and roman candles so that they would put out a nice display. I shot most of my repeating shells as singles. All my friends came over about 8 to eat and get ready. We have the perfect location for the 4th because there are 2 large public displays within a mile from my house and you could hear and see every minuet of them!!!! Our display started about 9 and lasted almost two hours!! I mostly bought repeating shells, the one that stole the show was The Beast and Invicible America. They were awesome!! I had bought over 200 artillery shells to shoot and they were good as well the Pro Mag and 3rd Generation were the best by far. With our display and the 2 large public displays going on at the same everyone thought that it was amazing. Everyone had a blast and we had no injuries from fireworks. 

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I was disappointed most of my fireworks were repetitive. We spent alot on them too. One shot out and alomst hit the crowd. Maybe I will go to a public display next time. 

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My Fourth was spent here in downtown Philadelphia. For safety's sake, I usually opt for mortars since I find them reliable and predictable which is important for urban use. I shot most of my stash off of a friend's roof-deck. Most of the people there had no clue as to what a mortar kit was, but after the first thrust of my favorite shell (Devil's Night Artillery Shells) they all were pretty excited. I find these shell kits the best firework value and the biggest head turners. 

My show was: Whistling Jake artillery shells, 3 kits, Crackling Artillery Shells, 3 kits, Devil's Night Maximun Load Shells, 4 kits, and 1 kit of Small Festival Balls. The Small Festival Balls were the worst shell kit I ever used. They produced a tiny thrust and an anemic sky rocket like burst. Wont buy them again. But, the Devil's Night shells were the best! They were assorted and a show in them selves. I would definitely buy them again and would also like to look into other assorted shell kits. 

Typically, the Philadelphia cops are pretty cool with firework usage as long as nobody goes off the deep end with them and uses them in or near crowds or sends rockets zipping off over roof tops. There were many people using roman candles and one guy (who I could not find) shot this green flare type firework which simply rose into the air as a comet tail with a green head and gave the largest M-80 like aerial report I have ever heard! If anyone knows what this could be please let me know. I would buy many of them. 

I hope I illustrated my Fourth clear enough for you. Let's hope the laws improve in the future so that all fireowkrs enthusiasts can enjoy the Fourth legally and safely!

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I spent 4th of July at my house with my own fireworks. They aren't that easy to get around here cuz they're illegal, but my dad usually gets some from this guy who lives in New Hampshire. We got around 200$ worth this year. We had 3 fountains, some professional ones, those tree-spinner things, Romans, and tons of rockets. My Mom's 2 friends and my great aunt came to watch my dad and I blow 'em off. Plus some spectators from across the road sat on their roofs and watched ours. The tree-spinners sucked, but mainly only because I nailed 'em on too tight and they didn't move. The big professional ones were great, but this fountain we had was cheap, and one of the best. It was The Apache Firedance, and it had tons of little colors poppen' out. It must have lasted for about 10 minutes. Another cool one was the 25 Shot Thunder. The first 21 Shot up and boomed pretty loud. The last 4 surprised us. The 22 shot straight out to the left and blew on the ground. The 23 went out forward. The 24 shot out to the right, and by then the only one dumb enough not to realize that the next to come out would hit us was my dad. He just stood there as the 25th shot toward him, and then skinned his leg. It was pretty funny, and luckily he just got a little burn and a cut. That meant that I got to light the rest. When it was all done I got a pack of firecrackers, lit 'em and threw 'em up in the air while everybody was coming into the house. I surprised them quite well, and my dog kept shaking the rest of the night. This 4th of July was probably my best one yet, especially since It was my first time lighten' 'em and we had some good ones. 

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okay it all started when i got up at 11:00 am Saturday morning. i couldn't keep my eyes off the clock, of course waiting for darkness to fall so i can let my big fireworks rip. as i anxiously awaited 3:00 pm, the start of my 4th of July barbecue, i went over to a friends house for a while. over at his house we grabbed all the fireworks we had planned to use for the night and of course the big steel 3 inch mortar pipe. at about 3:00 PM my barbecue began and so did the fireworks. right away we began lighting firecrackers by the brick and bottle rockets by the gross. we must have went through 9 mats and 20 gross of bottle rockets in 2 hours. a little after that i got bored and brought out some real stuff. me and a friend went down to the street and lit off 2 super blockbusters at the same time and then another a minute. later. the concussion of these things instantly sounded the car alarms in a nearby apartment complex like mad. right after that we took our break and actually ate something for the first time that day. then at about 8:45 i brought out all my big boy toys. i had shells ranging from 1.75 to 4 inch special effect shells. the 1.75 inch shells were big thunder artillery shells and they ripped for there size. the blast out of the pipe, height, and spread were all very impressive for a tad bigger then golf ball sized shells. after i drained 2 dozen of them i lit off 2. 25 inch flash break shells. they definitely have some kick to them but the spread wasn't all that great and neither was the height. there still great shells though. right after that i got 2 friends and 2 3 inch pipes and we started lighting class B display shells. 3 at a time to be exact. i was on the 4 inch pipe with my 4 inch shells and my friend and his father were on the 3 inch pipes with there shells. we all lit our shells at the same time and wow does class b shells kick. each shell left the pipe with a gut tingling blast and soared to extreme heights. the 3 inch shells broke off pretty good, then the 4 broke above them and covered the sky in beautiful stars. we did this same thing about 30 more times until we ran out of shells. its a shame there illegal and expensive because they are true fireworks. after the shells i lit a few cakes with my friends. 96 shot pearls, flashing thunder, flower thunder, Denver, air raids. . . . my night then ended very suddenly because an air raid cake tipped over and shot my neighbors house with 3 bombs. although the guy was cool about and enjoyed the day long show, we didn't push our luck and decided to end the night there. well that's pretty much everything. we did have a blast!!! it don't sound to bad for a 17 year olds 4th of July does it??? before i go id just like to say one more thing and that's be safe. make sure all cakes are braced and properly fired. i cant stress that enough after what happen to me last night. Another thing is please never attempt to re-light a shell that has failed to ignite, whether its little or big. to many lives have been lost due to people putting there face over the pipe. in the next town over a 4 inch shell claimed someone's life after he looked over the pipe last night. think of that pipe as a cannon ( which it is) would you look down the barrel of a cannon that you just lit but it failed to ignite??? please just use your heads and be safe. about 5 years ago we lost a close friend because he put his head over a 6 inch pipe/ shell to see what went wrong with an aerial shell. the poor guy never knew what hit him and he left behind a nice family and people to wonder why. you can never be to careful. well that's all i can say. . . . have fun and be safe!!!! see ya next year. . . 

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I have to say this was a 4th of July to remember! My two brothers and I spend a small fortune this year and boy was it worth it. Our neighborhood had our 3rd annual block party this year so we had to make it good, Our inventory included"48 assorted "dapkus #200 aerial tubes, 37 shot whirlwinds, 225 shot flower exibitions, 16 shot panorama, airhawk artillary shells, 19 shot coconut grove song, 19 shot china dragons, victory celebrations, 90 shot bearl flowers, five rolls of 1/4000 firecrackers, 90 shot tiger in the forest, commando parachutes, parachute battalion, a goliath shell kit, 100 shot saturn missiles, 25 shot bees and blossums, 19 shot spinning parachutes, 16 shot glow worms, 19 shot sea gladiators, 61 shot Rising dragons, 102 call from outer space, 25 shot nightmare, 14 shot monster king, 25 shot black tales, atlas iv rockets, fierce tiger rockets, thunder dragon shells, 25 shot glittering jewelry, and alot more reapeaters and stuff that i didn't list. 
I spent three days on and off setting up for our show. I fused together "seven" 37 shot wirlwinds to make big cake, then fused another five together and added two 37 shot golden beach cakes to make one big cake, I gotta say they were unbelieveable!!!! I used festival ball fuse to string all these up and it works very well. 	I also glued on a board, "50" tubes "which come with the reloadable kits" the kits were called "airhawk artillary, thunder dragon, goliath artillary "then I loaded 2 shells per tube, to do this I cut one shells fuse to the top of the shell, then loaded the shell in, then I put the shell with the full length fuse on top of it, so each tube will shoot 2 shells, this was my grand finale. we had a big assortment of cakes "repeaters" which we did in threes and fours, nothing was done one at a time. The best fireworks we did were the Dapkus brand #200 aerials, we did those 6 to eight at a time, each guy lit two tubes! The 16 shot panorama cakes, and the 10 shot blowout were really good too! I did notice that the belts of firecrackes worked best when they were off the grownd and strung up, we stung ours on a wire spanning across the whole street, one person lit a side, so bothe sides of the belt were going off at once. There was a few firework items that i didnt think were good and wouldnt buy them again, they are, assault choppers "no lift", and the electronic bombs "boring". As a safety factor we had or fireworks area roped off so nobody but the shooters could enter. We had about 130 people sitting on chairs watching. . . As we did our show we did not have any lul in the action, we kept lighting and lighting for about 2 1/2 hours of non stop action, the crowd rewarded us with a roar of cheers, when we got to the finale, the sky was lit up with over 100 shells, that made for a great ending to our show. The audience one by one thanked us for our efforts, and they said they would definitely be back next year to see our show again. We were lucky not to be bothered by the police, do to all the fireworks going off I was surprized. 
In all, this year was hard to beat with the awsome fireworks we had, hopfully we can top it next year. . . . 

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ok here it goes. at about 8:00pm me my wife and my little girl (almost 3 yrs) decided to go to my brothers house. when we got there the first thing i seen was scribs going off every where. as soon as we got to my older brothers house i couldn"t resist it i had to start firing off bottle rockets. with in 10 minutes my little brother showed up what a surprise. then all of us got into it and that includes the neighborhood. everybody was setting off scribs and bottle rockets and anything that doesn"t show much light. by 9:15 the sky lit up. it looked awesome. by the way this year i didn"t buy anything but my older brother did. my younger (26yrs) brother didn"t buy anything but he did play. anyhow between our fireworks (mine being 3-4 yrs old and worked) and the neighbors all heck broke lose. at first my little girl didn"t like it but after about 10 - 15 min. she started to like them. everybody was having a blast i"m not sure who they were but somebody had a WILD show and we loved it. i kept yelling YEAH real loud. by 10:00 ish my younger brother left do to work the next morning. me and my wife and little girl split around 11:00pm. by that time i was ready to call it a night anyhow, next year we (me and my brothers) will be the talk of the town i promise. i hope everybody had a happy 4th. 

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I have lost a great deal of my hearing because of fireworks! Now when ever i am around them i always wear ear protection! This damage has resulted in ringing in my ears and i am always saying WHAT?! I have always loved fireworks when i was in my early 20ds i would spend just for myself threwout each year $2000. 00. 
I no longer buy fireworks for myself or others! But when ever there is a proffessional show i make it my bizness to go! Several years ago i went to the fireworks convention in muskegun michigan! I still can not comprehend what took place at that convention! I was greatly saddend when i foundout that you have been in grand haven michigan as well! Communication is so important but the older i get the more i see more and more how little we communicate and share how sad we miss so much! Now as a 41 year old guy i stand in awe as i watch a fireworks show, woundering how they pack so many big and small mortors in such a small space? They just keep going on and going on and on! I envission fussess crossing over fussess! I think about the dangers in the profession! I wounder how the shooters hearing is holding up? I can not even comprehend the amount of liability insurance one needs to be in this bizness! I have seen metal mortor cases peeled back like peeled banana's from shells explodeing in the tube!
I think about how fireworks are made, and the safety factors that come into play regarding the manufactureing of them! I think about the history of fireworks! I look back at the part fireworks has played in my life the only bad thing that has come out of fireworks for me is the constant ringing in my ears!

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I GOT TO GO TO BOOM CITY ON A RESERVATION WERE THEY SELL THE FIRE THAT ARE COOL BUT THERE ILLEAGEL THAT WHY THERE ON THE RESERVATION AND I GOT SOME FIRE CRACKERS BOLLEL ROCKETS 2 M 80S
SOME MORTERS AND SPENT A FEW HOURS IN THE STREET IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE LIGHTING THEM

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Thanks for asking how our shows went. . . no need to say we worked our butts off, but we did. My husband & I are both going for our pyrotechnic operators license in the state of Texas and helped set up two shows here. We were involved all the way from helping to decide what shells went where in the show to pulling them, squibbing them, dropping them, wiring them, and finally firing them. (Our favorite part) One of the shows had about 500 shells up to 12", including 2 Niagara's and many display cakes and candles. Unfortunately, we did not get to see that show. We worked that location the on the 3rd and were dying to see it. We helped fire the smaller show at a country club in Houston with about 200 shells up to 8". The crowd loved the show and all went well except one break in the show when we had to put out a fire under our trailer that was just too close to our wires. The fire marshall guy was really nice and enjoyed the show as much as the crowd of around 400 people. 
Only true pyro nuts would work 10 hours a day for four days, drive around 500 miles, work in 100 degree temps for no pay just to smell the smoke! 

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I have a fireworks stand so we have worked steady from 9:00 am to midnight from 6/24 to 7/4. We handled the stand with two basic people (28 ft stand), ten thousand dollar inventory, and adding one person for the last four days. We are totally exhausted and are looking forward to 24 hours rest. We will plan a small show from our inventory for our friends on the coming saturday. We will feature those items that our customers liked the best and told us of their reaction to the various ones that they had bought. Once we get them on paper I will let you know which one were the best for a small texas town. I have a fireworks stand so we have worked steady from 9:00 am to midnight from 9/24 to 7/4. We handled the stand with two basic people (28 ft stand), ten thousand dollar inventory, and adding one person for the last four days. We are totally exhausted and are looking forward to 24 hours rest. We will plan a small show from our inventory for our friends on the coming saturday. We will feature those items that our customers liked the best and told us of their reaction to the various ones that they had bought. Once we get them on paper I will let you know which one were the best for a small texas town. 

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Well, we got our fireworks from the local Indian reservation, as some boneheads in Olympia made it illegal or at least quite difficult, to sell fireworks in Washington. However, you can still set them off in a few places :) It was just a few things, some monster sparklers, tanks and some small fountains. Also a friendship pagoda, a strobe or two and some smoke balls. Also 3 bottle rockets, as no fireworks shows, no matter how small, are complete without something aerial. (sp?) The reason for the conspicuous lack of aerial munitions was the fact that these were all set off on a hill in downtown Seattle, and not only did we not want neighbors calling the cops or fire brigade, but there were a few power lines nearby! 

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i live wear fireworks are illegal (new york) but my uncle pulled thru by buyinme some fireworks in virginia he bought california bottle rocket fountains and bought a 50 dollar kit with lots of fun cones it was fun i also had one of those things that spin on a tree and two 3 inch mortars but i got crazy and put them in a black garbage can and watched a big sparkly arch cuz i didnt have any tubes it was awesome though and my brother is in the marines and made me this awesome loud m-80 he got a pink elephant and put some black powder and other things in it and it was so loud it was fantastic and my uncle had ten blockbusters to add to the fun it was a great 4th of july

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WELL MINE PRETTY MuCH SUCKED. all my fireworks went off too close to the ground and started a huge fire. so i am pretty much baned from using any kind of fireworks from now on(at least in that city)

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I decided to do my show on July 3rd because in my neighborhood we need a day to recover from our 4th of July parties. This was to be my best show I had worked out problems with electric matches and was using quick match to insure that my items would work. I had done a small show for New Years and one when my son graduated from high school. So I was confident that everything would go off properly. The crowd numbered about 150 with lots of food and favorite beverage (which I can't have until the show is over) It took my 5 hours to wire up on the day of the show and 6 weeks of off and on gluing and arranging my show. My show consisted of four segments. 1st 30 pancakes mostly from Brothers such as Battle of waterloo, Hollywood trip, Fire Astral, Command Test, and several others I forgot. 2nd was a water fall 20 feet in the air and 25 feet long with 30 Shiny gadget fountains that last 3 1/2 minutes. In front of this was 4 boards with another 8 fountains shooting up at an angle. As these were going off I then had 40 Haley's comets and 10 Niagara Falls that would go off on top of this Scaffolding. and last I had 40 #5 Comets that shot off in sequence behind all this. 3rd was back to 40 more pancakes of various types. The Grand Finale consisted of 160 single shot artillery shells from Brothers. 12 four shot #300 shells from Patriot fireworks 8 Northern lights, 8 Hack attacks these are 8 shot boards. 60 Airhawks canisters 40 cruise missiles and a few things left from last year such as some single shot mortars. (other pancakes were Free birds, Color of the World, Battle of Waterloo, Independence Day, Cicada Missile almost my whole show came from Brothers Fireworks purchased from Patriot Fireworks in Maryland. This was to be my best show ever completed tested and retested all electric matches had continuity everything ready to go. Then the rains came I covered everything I could we waited for the rain to pass and everything looked fine but when the show started the quick match used had become wet and the first boards had to be ignited with a match. only half of the first boards went off. then the rain started again so the decision was made to throw all 14 switches which we did and everything but the fountains went of and we had a grand finale that lasted for 30 minutes without any interruption. At the end of the show everyone said how great it was and nobody noticed the mess ups and nobody minded the rain and the only thing I said is what I always say is wait until next year. 

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This 4th of July was wonderful, I bought my fireworks in Nevada on an Indian Reservation. It was the first time I had ever bought aerial fireworks. I just about cried I was so happy when I saw all the different types of fireworks they had. I had about $100 to spend, so I was kinda limited on what I could buy. I got lucky on my purchase of the 12 pack of mortar shells, "Unleash the Beast" (Great Grizzly Fireworks). These shells are wonderful, I got oh and awe's from not only my family and friends, but also practically everybody on the entire block with those shells. My favorite shells were Whistling to Crackling, and the Jumbo Golden Crysanthemum. My neighbor had a 48 shot Color Pearl Flower Repeater, I had one also, but I had prior to the fourth poured some rocket engine powder in the bottom of mine, so when I set mine off, the entire thing went off at once, that was impressive, especially for such a small package. Next year I will have to plan out my fireworks better, so there will be no lulls in the action. My very small "finale" included two mortars from the Unleash the Beast shell pack, the silver palm and Jumbo Golden Crysanthemum, that got cheers from the crowds. My last shot was a homemade 8 inch long 2 inch wide(outer diameter) salute. I used kraft paper moistened with wheat paste to roll the actual salute, and filled it with estes rocket engine powder, about $25 worth or so. Then I epoxyed both ends and inserted a visco fuse into one end. Then I made the tube out of the same material I used to make the salute(plus a bunch of duct tape wraps around the tube. Then it was set. I used a few ounces of the engine powder in the bottom of the mortar, which was epoxyed at one end very heavily, the mortar was in a trash can filled with sand for support, and in case of a misfire. The crowd was moved to a safe distance and additional fuse was strung down the tube into the lift charge powder, then shell was dropped in and packed on top with recovery wadding, packed tight on top of the salute, the fuse was lit and about twenty seconds later a small boom signaled the succesful firing of the salute, it travel to about 100-150 feet completely dark on the way up. Then salutes own fuse hit the powder and an extremely loud, low pitched "boom" filled the neighborhood (Garden Grove, California). There was no big flash, just a semi-bright orange-yellow fireball, about probably 3 feet across, and a small mushroom shaped cloud. We had no problem from the police, they were driving around the area earlier in the day, and after it got dark, they never drove back by our house again. My biggest regret was not having your book Fireworks A-Z Buyers guide, when I went to the Indian Reservation to get my Fireworks, most of the things I purchased were ridiculously bad, especially the skyrockets called Ball Buster's, I got more cheers shooting off 4 bottle rockets at once! Next year will be much better, as I am thinking about making some 4 inch Crysanthemum shells, that ought to get the cops attention!! (>:

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In terms of firepower, it was a low horsepower affair but the thing that consistently knocked me out was how incredible ALL the Brothers' Fireworks items were. It didn't matter if it was a novelty or something bigger-they totally outperformed the competition. I'm asking my fireworks purveyors to bring in more of their stuff for next year. . . 

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Chicago IL, South Loop (About 1.5 miles of Sears Tower ). Had the best fourth ever. My neighborhood consists mainly two story bungalows and some large warehouses to the south and east. An old factory which was on an entire city block was just leveled across the street. So, we had a safe area in which to fire. Our block had three large parties going that night. Lots of kids and adults acting like kids, myself included. 

This year I spent about $1500, retail, on fireworks (Next year, Wholesale online). Rockets, Cakes, Repeaters. I hot glued cakes to 4'x4' boards and fused them together. This worked very well as I was able to step back and watch. I also made multi tube shell launchers by routering 2. 5" diameter x 1/2" deep holes into boards and hot gluing 2. 5" PVC pipes to them. I then connected each shells fuse together. Again this gave me time to step back and watch. I also made a stand containing various length 3/4" pvc tubes from which rockets were launched and I also drilled 1 inch deep holes to hold roman candles. The stand was nice so that you dont have to bend over to light these items. 

Every thing worked very well. Between 9:00pm and 10:00 pm Our neiborhood was afire with some of the best displays I've seen. But, not just mine. Seems that a lot of people spent some significant $. Fireworks were going off in every direction, N, W, S, and East. Seems that someone at a large construction company two blocks south had access to some small 1. 3G display items. Nice show! At one point I turned and looked north toward downtown. Normally we have a very nice view of all the sky scrapers but at that point it was obscurred by a thick layer of smoke starting at about 150 and running up to about 250 feet in the air. We could see the bottems and tops of the buildings but nothing in between. Cool!

We finally stopped at about 12:30am. It was great!!! I had quite a variety of fireworks and here are some of the best. ANY BlackCat Item, They are just good quality. The BC Gatlin pack of Roman Candles was cool, great reports and effects. For Cakes, Wild Wild West and Falcon Rising ( Brothers), Pacific Blue and Long and Loud (Great Grizzly), Dragons Fire (?), Pyro Gliphics and Pyro Pandamonium (Phantom), Raptor and Molitov Coctail (?) Bigger is'nt always better, Beyond 2000 sucked but the little 96 shot Colorful Pearl Flower is pretty cool. For arial mortor shells the best was Bad Ass Double Break shells by Great Grizzly, also Super Bombs by Winda. For Rockets, Wolfpack whistling bottle rockets, Lucky Space rockets for display, and for LOUD bang and flash "Sky Slam Rockets" They are either very well crafted or they put a half stick on the end. No manufacturer was listed on the package just made in China. A close second to the Sky Slam were the Terminator Rockets. Again Very loud report and good flash. Celebration String firecrackers with the bomb at the end are really cool also. 

Hope everyone had a great fourth. I certainly did and I cant wait for New Years Eve. I think I have a few terminators left. . . listen for me. 

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Yeah, I had a great 4th of July at my Girlfriends parents house. I almost went to Lynwood to said hello to you but we don't have no time because we have to take care of our party which over 300 people came over for BBQ and fireworks shows because It was our last to host the event of Fourth of July. I used to have Firework shows since I was 16 at different places and I getting tired to take care of them. So, next year, we can go to any place to see the fireworks show like Queen Mary near here. 
About my Fireworks show, I lit many good stuffs like 2- 100, 1-50, 10-25 shots of Thunder kings (my favorite ), 3 cakes of Silver Swallows (91 shots), I lit 5 Cakes of Crashing Rainbow at same time, 115 shells (most of them are 6 inches ), Lot of Firecrackers, tons of Sky rockets, Lotus Rolls, India Fireworks that I bought it from them and other Good Cakes like Orion, Super knights, Whistling bird with cracking, overload, Invincible devil, and others ( I cant remember ). Hey, I like Explorer, they re good one and make my people into bad crowd! The show start at about 8 until one in the morning can you image that how much I have the fireworks. Some of my people bring their fireworks too. I remember one guy (magician) from London bring a bag of Cherry Bomb and dint lit all of it because I told him that I would like to have it for my collector so he gave it to me. 
Some of Fireworks are SUCK like I getting tired of many differnt kind of Roman Candles because it getting Boring most of them are same. Most I like are. . . Thunder kings of Course and one, I bought 8 dozen Bottle rockets with quick fuse (gray fuse) so I took all of wood slick away from the body of bottle and put into a big box. All of body of bottle rocket with no wood slicks in a box when i lit them and run away. WOW!! they go any where in direction in the air!!
when the shows over, all of them walked in the house and some of my friend (magician) fool around with other with magic tricks like cards, coins, etc etc. . 

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Bob my Fourth of July was complete pandamonium!! We had a lot of really good fireworks plus a minature cannon that we blew off! We had our Fourth of July party at my cabin in South Bend, NE. My family was there including some of my cousins and friends. We lit off a lot of really neat display stuff. The cannon that my dad lit off was really really loud! Everybody was lighting them off everywhere around us. It was a really great Foruth of July hope yours was fun too!!

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Well, because the president of Matchlogic Inc. lives on my street and he is some kind of multi-billionare, he took me to get fireworks this year. We bought 190$ worth, then cause we spent so much, we got 50$ in free fireworks. I set up my show and planned it all the for the 4th, then marked where everything was and took it inside cause a block party was going on at the site. when it was time, I took everything outside and set it up, but before I could start, someone came up to me and told me that because it had been so dry for the past month in Colorado, that all fireworks were illegal. So I just figured that we would just get it over with real fast, then the cops won't be able to stop us, cause it will be all over bythe time they get here. So we compressed a 30 min. show into about 10-15 min, and it was really cool, because the whole thing was a fanale. I was really dissapointed in the Quake fountain, it was very smaill and boring. Not what I expected out of a 1. 5 fool tall, 24$ item. Also, the Black Cat Lighthouse fountain was about 3 in. tall, but it shot up probably over 15 ft into the air. Cool. 

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Well, as for my Fourth of July, it wasn't too good. I brought a lot of stuff this year from a VERY good friend of mine, but sold most of the small stuff since it just didn't seem like I would be able to shoot all of it off. Oh, and did I mention? I live in Staten Island, NY! Sad eh? I really hate NY, it's not just the strict anti-fireworks laws, or even the Conniving Jerk-off mayor, it's EVERYTHING! Well, anyway, getting back to the fireworks, I could barely sleep July 3rd because I was anticipating the fourth so much! Anyway, when I woke up, I expected my friend to get me my M-80s
(Well, bootleg ones) but he went to Pennsylvania. (The lucky bastard) I then opened my fireworks box to see what I had left; here is what I saw: 
1 Parachutes over America cake
1 Air raid cake. 
1 Iron Revenger Shell kit
4 pcs. Artillery Shell Rocket
6 packs bottle rockets
6 packs whistling bottle rockets
2 strips firecrackers
1 Fourth of July spectacular cake
2 roman candles
1 VERY big firecracker (white 8"x21/2")
4 small black powder firecrackers
18 m-80 type flash powder crackers (real things-not crappy imitation) 
3 block-buster (silver 6"x3/4")
1 4" shell (VERY good)
Some other stuff I don't remember

When I went outside in the morning, I excepted to see dozens of people lighting off fireworks; perhaps I forgot where I was living! There was nobody lighting anything. I took my bike and drove by my friend's house to see what they were doing. They had almost nothing except for the stuff I sold them. They told me something I wish wasn't true, they said That there were many police officers circling the borough in ORDINARY cars! I laughed in their face, I thought that not even Guiliani was that stupid, well actually he was. I decided to test my luck. I took one of my blockbusters (they deserve the name) and stuck a lit, filterless cigarette on the fuse, and put it in the middle of the street. I then ran like a cat out of hell to my friend's house. After about 3 minutes, I saw a bunch of smoke pour out from the fuse, then ***BOOM***. I was about a block away, on the second floor of my friend's house, and still felt the blast wave slamming into my chest. I was sure that just about any cop in a 5-mile radius would here that, judging by the amount of car alarms going off. The results were upsetting, at first a guy in a Chevy capris classic (a police car without any markings or a siren) came down the street. . . at 15 M. P. H, in a police uniform, staring from side to side. I was upset and angry, so angry, that just after the dickhead left, I lit 3 m-80s on the ground and ran in inside. Once again the fruitcake came around, then again then again then again. . . I was getting awfully bored watching him. So I lit 3 of those 50 count firecracker strips. I tied them together with string. Then I lit them and threw them 50ft. down the block. (Which was safe. Those crackers couldn't hurt me any way. ) I got back inside just in time. They exploded just as the Gaylord came around again. He stopped for a while came outside and looked around. Then in 15 minutes. A WHOLE ARMY of police vans and fire trucks arrived. They stayed there for an hour. Then left. I was very upset. I knew that I would probably not get to light my other stuff. The day progressed and I was feeling more hopeless by the minute. I tried going to another block to light my stuff, but as soon as I lit 1 bottle rocket, a fag said he called the cops, so I just left. I really don't care if somebody calls the cops. By the time it takes them to get there, I can be miles away. I just went into my basement and lit some separate firecrackers. It was VERY safe. I have many windows there, and my basement is unfinished. There is NOTHING flammable there and nothing That could be damaged, after all, the floors and walls. Were concrete. Basically I did nothing else that day. At night, I pretty much gave up trying to light the good stuff. There were just too many undercover cops and paranoid psychopathic retards that just LOVE to see people in trouble for celebrating the nations birthday. I came with my parents to see that Macy's fireworks show. I was pretty close to the shell barges when they went up. It was very good. There were AWESOME little effects like SMILEY FACES, SHELLS THAT SPELL OUT "2000" AND EVEN SHELLS THAT SPELL OUT "USA". I taped the whole thing with my camcorder, with good results. When I got back home, I saw some aerial effects going off close to my house. So I rode my bike there. There was some guys and a bunch of kids their. I was pretty surprised with the amount of cakes, shells etc. this guy lit off. Judging by the debris I saw, this guy must either have some balls or lots of friends in the police department to pull off a show of that caliber. My jaw practically dropped when I saw the huge firecracker strips he took out. They were about 50ft. each. He lit them BOTH and I just sat back and watched. It was pretty loud. I took this time to blow off some of the left over Firecrackers. I just lit them and threw them on the ground. I had 3 m-80s left in my pockets. I only began to move away when this guy put a bunch of crackers in a pile and sprayed lots of WD-40 on them. He lit it with a piece of paper, probably the smartest thing he did that day. After the show was all finished, I lit an M-80 and ran. It exploded very loudly and the guy was pretty much baffled. It was already 1:00am in the morning. It was too late to late do anything. I tried to light a mortar off, but the assholes undercover stopped me once again. Perhaps Guiliani and his Bend-over buddies won the battle, but they still didn't win the war. Just today (7/5/00) I lit off an artillery shell rocket off, in my friend's backyard. It went up about 100ft. and broke LOUDLY into a very nice multi-color break. Tomorrow I will do the rest of my stuff. There is a big forest about 4 blocks from my house. In that forest is pond. Heh that's were I will do my stuff. I may even videotape. I don't know if I should risk bringing an expensive camera there. Should I Bob? You tell me. Well, I hoped you enjoyed my Fourth of July story. I will write a "6th of July" later tomorrow after I shoot the rest of my fireworks. Remember everyone. Every day is "fireworks season" there is actually no such thing as "fireworks season". There is however a fireworks buying season, but just because it's not the Fourth of July doesn't mean that you shouldn't light fireworks. Anything that calls for a celebration can use some fireworks. A graduation, a birthday, even just for fun, fireworks can create fun out of thin air. Except of course if you live in New York like me, Then the only time you should shoot off fireworks is when Guiliani leaves office. 

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What a day. It started in the early afternoon with a trip to the in-laws farm. We had the four F's, Family, Friends, Food and Fireworks. I thought I was better prepared this year. However, the sooner I start planning the more I want to do. This tends to lead to miscues. But, that's enough negative, lets get to the positives. I had a helper entertain the troops with some small ground spinners. Then we passed out a new item. These large hand held tubes, "Glow Beam", "Touch of Sparkle" and "Dazzling Diamonds". A really nice cross between a sparkler and a fountain. Then we moved on to the main show. Which consisted of fountains of all sizes, 10 to 25 shot mortar cakes and Arial mortars and bottle rockets. A couple of the best crowd pleasers were, "Killer Alligator" and "Blue Fired Ice". Both of these mortar cakes had excellent color and height. The night ended with smiles on everyone's face, What a pay day. 
Wait until next year! I know I can do better. The planning has begun. 

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Your fourth of july sounded great!! I had a great one too. Only problem was that I live in Irvine California. Everting is illeagal here. But I still had a great fourth. And it was all because of the sky rockets I had. They were illegal but the cops didn't care cause we went down to Costa Mesa. We launched them out of a homemade PVC pipe launcher that looked like a rocket launcher. We held it mortor style and some one dropped the rocket in carefully. It was fun. Also we put 5 fire crackles(wanna be firecackers)in to an old fountain and it started crackling then a giant shroom of fire shot out. It was so crazy!! Last we opened 3 picolo petes and ground up that white powder. next we put it in a 2 liter and punchered a hole in the cap, then we put a fuse in it. This way the fuse fell down and lit it. It exploded and was twice as loud as an M-80. I don't know how it works, maybe you could tell me. Also please tell if it is illegal. 

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Hey Bob, 
For the fourth I went to a professional show with my dad which was very good. However, before going to the show we had some fun of our own. We made a couple of sparkler bombs (or as well call them, "whoosh" bombs). 
The sparkler "bomb" doesn't really blow up at all, but hundreds of sparklers, all designed to last a full minute, go up in 1-3 seconds. It is very cool. Anyway, we made three whoosh bombs for the fourth, spending about 70 dollars. The first was an introduction to the last two and consisted of only one case of sparklers. (when I say case, I am reffering to 12 packages of 8 sparklers for a total of 96 sparklers). We used wood based sparklers because they were the least expensive. The second sparkler bomb consisted of 5 cases of sparklers and created a very nice fireball. What is cool about using wood sparklers is that they tend to burn after the intitial blast, which was indeed the case. The final sparkler bomb had 10 cases of sparklers, or 960 sparklers. It was beastily. The emense flame reached 10-15 feet in all directions. The bomb lasted about 3 full seconds because it was not packed as tight due to its size. We lit the bombs on a stump, the surface of which was turned to glowing embers after this bomb. 
All and all, I thought it was a well spent 70 dollars, especially when split with two friends. And of course I video taped the great show. 

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After a year of anticipation, the 4th of July holiday was finally here again. I began planning as much of my show as I could about 2 weeks in advance. Exactly one week to the day before the 4th of July, my girlfriend and I made the 2 and a half hour journey South to Charleston, MO. I've been going to Reeve's Boomland there for the last 6 years to pick up my fireworks. 

With a smaller budget than I had to work with in the past, it was hard to contain myself, but nonetheless, I made out o. k. We spent about an hour and a half picking out a shopping cart full of cakes while one of the employees pulled a few items I wanted cases of from the back. If your ever in Southern Missouri and traveling along Interstate 55 or 57, make sure to check out Boomland in Charleston. It's one of the largest class C outfits in the country and they have unbelievable prices as well. 

With about 8 cases of items and about 50 assorted cakes, we packed up the van and headed home. Although I don't feel very comfortable transporting any fireworks in a van, it was my only means of picking everything up at once. Besides, I was still grinning from ear to ear on the inside the whole way home. 

Work was coming bright and early the next morning, so I had to unload the van and leave all my goodies alone until the following day. When I got home from work, I immediately began unboxing everything and taking an inventory of all my items and what effects they had. This makes it alot easier for me to map out my shows. I proceeded to determine my firing order and mark my cakes with a permanent marker. I took all of my case items and began liquid nailing them to plywood boards I had cut. most of these I used for my finale. It took a good weeks worth of working a little at a time to get everything glued down and in order. 

Before I knew it the it was Tuesday, the 4th of July. I was pumped. There was a threat of rain, but I didn't let it dampen my spirit. About 9:00 in the morning, my Mom's boss and his son came over to pick up the goods and transport them to his house where we would be shooting the show. This was the first time I would be shooting there and nobody in the audience had ever seen one of my shows, so I was pretty excited to surprise everyone. The shoot site was absolutely perfect for a show. His home sits on a rural 5 acre lot with woods and a beautiful lake in the middle of the property. 

I spent the majority of the day using quickmatch and Stick Match to fuse all the items on my boards together. The heat and humidity were absolutely brutal so it made my work much lengthier than I had anticipated. With everything in place and ready to fire around 3:00, I proceeded to cover the show with clear plastic just in case of rain. 

After some food and a long nap in the comfort of my air conditioned home, it was time to head back out to the shoot site for final preparations. When we arrived at the site it began to sprinkle and wound up doing so until just before the show, so I left everything covered until I began shooting. Around 8:45pm I couldn't stand the anticipation any longer. I began the show with a 2. 5" black powder salute. That got everybody pumped up. For about 40 minutes straight I put on a gap-free show shooting cakes individually and in groups, with an occasional volley of 1. 75" shells inbetween. The crowd was loving every minute of the action. After my last individual cake was finished, everything was silent. The crowd thought the show had concluded. After the rounds of applause I waited for silence again. Then without warning I approached my finale, knelt down and touched my flare to the first Sticky Match fuse. ALL HELL PROCEEDED TO BREAK LOOSE! 
The finale was pure pandemonium and the crowd was in awe. Half were screaming at the top of their lungs and half were speechless in amazement. I stretched the finale to just over two solid minutes of noise and color. Here's what went off nearly simultaneously to produce the best hand fired show I've ever done. 

12- America Invincible cakes (Brothers)
12- Drinker of the Wind cakes (Brothers) 
12- Independence Day cakes (Brothers)
12- Millennium Festival cakes (Brothers) 
18- Diamonds in the Dark cakes (???)
25 shot Thunderking cake
18 shot 2. 5" color & salute finale rack
12 3" various color peony shells

I was never so proud of anything I have done and guess what? I didn't get a second of it on tape! I had my camcorder all set up and ready to go for the show before hand, but when it started to sprinkle, I set it inside the house. When I brought it back out for the show, the drastic humidity change produced condensation inside the camera and made it inoperable. I was so furious. I'm going to make sure this doesn't happen again next year. 
Anyway, it was a great show and I'm already planning next year's show and hope it's even bigger and better. 

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In the past I have ususally gone up to a friend of mine's lake place to do fireworks, and we usually just buy about 100 or more cakes and some of the more noteworthy or new shell kits, fountains, and the like and just shoot items one at a time. We do this to see what the items at our store really do, as well stuff from the other local stands and outlets, not to mention find out what "crowd wow-ers". Amazingly it always is met with delight from the crowd and onlookers. But this year I also built a finale on plywood like I had seen in some Pyro editions in the past, and it was AWESOME!!! I had many doubts about my ability to get it wired right and timed right. It started with 4 Sea of Faces Fountains at once, followed by 4 Super Stallions, then 4 180 Sky Travel Barrage, then 2 Mumbo Jumbo, then 2 Thunder Kings, then 2 Oasis, then 4 glider bombs, then 2 19 shot Crackling Golden Palms, then about 6 artillery shells(from the trilogy kit), then a four shot #300 Starr Shell rack then 4 "good" Firing Squads, ended with 6 salutes. It was amazing! I hot glued them all on plywood and fused them together with some visco fuse and a little quick match I had on some artillery shells I bought at the 1998 PGI convention. It was 8-10 minutes of color and sound that attracted boats from all over the lake and more applause that I have ever recieved at a "show", if you can all what I usually do a show. I had a rookie long pause between the Oasis and the Glider Bombs, in which I drew appaluse that was quickly overshadowed by the Glider Bombs, and the rest of the show. The crowd was pleasantly suprised with the "second stage" of the show, as was I because I thought my wiring efforts were erred in some way. I am already planning a bigger and better show for next year. Thought you would like to hear my story. 

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The Fourth of July was great but my firework display was not setting off on the Fourth. My friend had a party at his private property on July 1st. The reason he had a party because more people will be able to show up from out of town. These people who were at the party that were from Canada, Baltimore, DC, Ohio, and Los Angeles. There were 175 people at the party. I made the biggest fireworks display ever. I have been doing this since I was 12 years old. In the beginning, it was small and cheap like fountains and firecrackers and spinners. After 11 years of reading and watching videos from America Fireworks News Co. and also Bob Weaver's newsletter and web sites. 

On July 1st, that morning, I moved all the fireworks stuff and tubes to the place. Then I went golfing with my friends in the afternoon to keep my mind calm because I get so excited and pumped up for the first firing that night. After five o clock, I went to the party where I set the fireworks off. I started to put all the fireworks together and setting them up. I brought over 250 shells, 1 3/4" and 2 1/2". Some are tying in one slow fuse and some are lighting individual. I had over 350 tubes of 1 3/4 inch and 2 1/2 inch on the show. I only used about 50 shells during the show (before the grand finale). The shells brand were Temple of Heaven, Behai, Black Cat. I got Double Impact and Tri-Shell. I like Double Impact. Those gives a nice break and size with rich new colors. I used 200 shells in the grand finale all in one. I got sticky Match fuse for the first time and save me a lot of time because I used to have quick match or black match in the past and it was a lot of cutting and tape. Sticky Match is great and useful for the finale and lance work. They require pyro license but it can be sold if you know some pyro people. The only one firework that suck is Battle of Colors. I used that during the beginning. It makes a good report but not very well floral looks. I either don't use them or put in the grand finale. My favorite fireworks ever was Explorer 25 shots and Above and Beyond 19 shots and also Pandoras Box 19 shots. Those were the best cakes that I ever have for ten years. Above and Beyond looks like thousand of bees or birds that fly around or fish fly around. Pandoras Box are the same cake as Above and Beyond. Explorer was very hard to find and get those. No cops and very lucky that the town loves fireworks too. I am planning to buy two cases of Explorer next year because they are the best and very professional. You will not be upset for this one. I only had Red, Silver Palm, Green to Red. They had another styles or colors but they are out because they were very popular. Here is my listing for the Grand Finale. I just light one fuse for that. The black match were tying to: Flashing Thunder (24 candles), 30 shells in box with tubes in, one explorer, 50 shells in box with tubes(Behai and Temple of Heaven Shell, and 50 shells in box with tubes (Double Impact, Tri-Shells, and Behai), 16-2 1/2 inches shells, 30 N1000s Salutes, Niagara Falls - 10 shots and 3-Thunder King. Remember they were all in one time. The show lasts about 10 minutes long. I know that it is not enough. Next year, I will increase the time of the show to 15 to 30 minutes. After the show was over, I watched to the crowd. The whole crowd was clapped like crazy and telling me all kinds of good remarks like Awesome, Great, Love it, The Best! People are telling me that are better than city fireworks display. The owners that threw the party and brought me fireworks were shocking and could not believe how awesome they were. The Grand finale were the best part of the show. 

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Well im 16 and i live in a state where fireworks are illegal, but nothing comes between me and fireworks come 4th of july. I got a fair amount of cakes some bottle rockets a few matts, the usual. I also had a 6000 belt and 1600 belt of thunderbomb firecrackers which were pretty sweet. For no apparent reason at all since i wasent able to obtain a 3'' mortar so i cound not buy 3'' shells (there dangerous anyways even tho ive had them in the past) i bought 2 boxes of small festival balls, 2 boxes of ninja shells and about 15 boxes of rambo kid shells!! (ive never had so manny damn shells before so it was pretty cool having so manny mortars to prefill with shells) Anyways come the 4th i had already wasted about 2 boxes of shells, maybe 3 but i had plenty. come night time. i set up all my premade mortars and got all my stuff outside. well damn was I in for a suprize when my supplyer (also 1 of my close neighbors) mentions he had 3 exotic cackes for the finale. so im like: cool blah blah, so i start the show off with a twiter glitter then a sound king then a whole bunch of cakes, lighting a cake then a shell, cake, shell, some rockets, shell and it was looking nice. i must have lit about 100 cakes and 5 dozen rockets. i was down to a few big cakes and the 1600 belt so i lit off the belt which i had to relight about 5 times due to the fact that the fuse keept blowing it self out after that 4 air defenses and 4 saturn missles filled the sky. 2 battle of colors(really nice cake) started as the other 4 finished then i had 1 cacke called gold mines to titanium salute, damn was it a loud one, 19 shots that sounded like thunder. then it was time to bring out the finale cakes DAMN they were professional cackes! we had a King Bomb Barrage which was 49 shots of super loud titanium salutes with red tail, then a 600 shot silver swallow which made the sky look like day and then a 36 shot 3'' red, green, blue, gold crysantium!!!! they were sick as hell as they filled up the whole sky as all my neighbors watched in aww! this was my best display ive ever put on. . so far, but there is only 1 part about it that always pisses me off. . . im the 1 that has to clean all that up ;[ -

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To tell you the truth, i did not do 1 thing. Have been pretty ill lately and sent wife to beach. W/family, as usual she hurt her ribs falling down stairs, lways paying to go and get hurt. i stay home and hurt and she too. Why pay to hurt???. kind of silly too me. I do not hang my flag and let it fly no more since i found out our civil servants make laws to suit themselves and store hip pocket money and ole slick, that silver sly tounge demon. That demon has sold the usa out. So i just be an old vet fading away slowly, but time is really going much faster. sorry to bother you with drab story, but you have it. 

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I spent the 4th of July in Tucson, Arizona on a foothills ranch house watching 6 simultaneous fireworks shows down in the valley below. Directly below the old pueblo adobe villa brick wall was a suburban park pro show. In the distance beyond was either a city park or the University of Arizona -- 'don't know, I was a tourist. Then off to the far side was another city pro show atop "A" Mountain, an extinct volcano of explosive mystery. In the immediate neighborhood wizzed home shows of flying rockets and beautiful showers of sparks, fizzes, whirls and bangs. After the pro shows quit, neighbors continued here and there fading off into the late night with surprise canon booms, screamers, pops and crackles. Happy 4th of July, 2000!

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Me and my brother in law wrote out our plan for everything the night before and the next afternoon when we came back from waterskiing we set everything up we put the 4th of july spectacular in the middle with the 2 morter cases on each side then we lined "the bombs" up next to that and put a tube in the grass next to that for the samauri rockets next we lined up the roll of 1000 firecrackers nearby and put a rat tat tat fountain on the other side i then put the two 150missle battery on the end of everything. It was a fairly quick show so we lit the missle barrages as backround (1 after the other was done) and I set of the triple impact morters and my brother in law set offthe samurai rockets and bombs and after the rockets, bombs, and morters were done we set off the roll of 1000 and the rat tat tat fountain and last we set off the froth of july spectacular as a fanale everyone was extremelyimpressed and after that i gave sparklers to the kids to play with and that was the end of it

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I never knew that I wanted to put on a show until it was all over that 4th of July night. 
The previous 4th of July and New Years Eve my friends and I had shot some real nice fireworks for a club that we belong to. There was no coordination and we shot whatever we could grab and light. It was a ball. So after I read your "Fireworks for everyone" I knew what needed to be done. 
The club house is across the lake from where I live with my wife and daughter. It's a small private establishment with a small bar, a large dance floor/dining area, large kitchen and large deck with a 100 by 200 ft. lawn on the lake and a solid 30-man membership, no women's auxiliary but the girls are always welcomed. They really do help out so much at events. 
For this 4th we had chosen our fireworks very carefully and with much useful information from your books that every piece was a hit. I had only from 9-10:30 pm to do the show. Fireworks are illegal here, but not hard to get. So, while the local fire dept. has their show from 9:15-10 pm most complaints will go unanswered til about 10:30 pm when the crowd and traffic finally subside. The police are pretty cool on the 4th of July night anyway. They'll just give you a warning the first time out. They rarely take your stuff. Much to my surprise this year, there were quite a few parties around the lake with much larger fireworks than ours. We had built 2, 4-cement block shooting pits with a 3" mortar tube in a 5- gallon pail of sand next to each. Each tube was angled for the shots to go slightly over the water. (This worked out very well. ) Each pit was illuminated by a pair of road flares set about 10 ft. in front. The show pieces were numbered and boxed with the last shots put in first. We all had eye protection and we lit fuses by pyro torch (recommended). It's a longer, pencil sized flare that burns light green in color. It doesn't seem to mess with your eyes at night and will light a fuse instantly. All your tips worked but there are just too many for me to keep mentioning. Everybody has to read your books. Although, the best tip was for me to sit back with the boxed fireworks and work my 3 friends as runners and shooters (they had volunteered and loved the chance to blow up so much stuff). The budget was less than $150 but we wound up shooting $200. No big deal. Here's the show: 
8:30 pm: main parking lot - firecrackers, jumping jacks, smoke bombs, crackle bombs, strobes, etc. for the kids. 
9:00 pm: lawn - small colored sparklers, 3 ft. sparklers, morning glories for the kids. 
9:15 pm: people with their own small fireworks. 
9:30 pm: OUR SHOW: Shot one piece at a time alternating from one pit to the other. 
-Cobra strike, crackling comets/silver, 19 shot, 21 sec. 
-Battlefield barrage, r/g color pearls, whistle, crackle. 36 shot, 28 sec. 
-Killer alligator, silver comets, r/g glitter, 25 shot, 60 sec. 
-2, 3 " color shells (shot as singles). 
-Double pop missiles, multi-colored pearls that noisily eject a louder report, 19 shot, 20 sec. 
-3" color shell. 
-3" titanium salute shell. 
--------2 min. breather--------
Part 2
-These will be double-shots (both pits firing at the same time). 
-2, 96 color pearl flower with report, r/g pearls with break, 96 shot, 30 sec. 
-2 clustering cicada, whistling to silver break, 61 shot, 14 sec. 
-2, 3" color shells. 
-2, touchdown, multi-effect (pearls, loud reports, comets, breaks, crackle, glitter). Just like you see on TV after a football touchdown. 6 tubes - I didn't count how many shots in each tube. 
-2, 3" color shells. 
-1 thunder chrysanthemum, loud aerial bombs, 19 shot, 30 sec. 
-2, 3" color shells. 
-2, 3" titanium salute shells. 
--------end of show--------
Myself and my 3 friends turned to see the crowd going wild! All other fireworks on the lake had stopped with this finale. It was then I knew that I always wanted to do a fireworks show. 
An interesting note from this 4th: We found that if you take the nose cone off of a large rocket called "Display Shell Rocket" and remove the star payload, you can fit an end fuse block buster in with the fuse pointing into the top of the motor. Just glue the nose cone back on and you're ready to fly your own ICBM. These rockets have powerful motors on them and will fly this load at a high angle and won't nose over until the motor runs out; thus, ejecting the block buster 3 or 4 sec. before detonating. With little practice you can have these things going off just above the surface of the lake. This is excellent for harassing Canadian geese that think they are out of fireworks range. These rockets are good for 100+ yds. 
Rumours have it that there's a fireworks committee coming soon in our club and maybe a Labor Day party. Til then, happy shooting. 

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Here is the story of my 4th of July season. It started in early June when two of my friends and I made a pilgrimage out to Missouri to pick up fireworks for my show. We got out there during the early afternoon hours one day. After 4 hours of shopping and $1000 later we were back on the road heading home. During the next few weeks after that buying spree, I spent many hours deciding how to organize my show and what items would make up the finale. Finally, the week before the 4th I came up with my final plan for the show. 

Next, I spent the 4th of July weekend gluing items on boards with liquid nails and fusing the items with visco fuse, masking tape, and gun powder. Since I never glued any items down on boards, fused items together with visco fuse, or covered items with foil in the past, I decided to put a pre-4th-of-July 10 minute exhibition for my sister's party and her neighbors on Sunday, July 2nd for practice. Thank god that I did since I could not get my friends video camera to work for reasons not worth mentioning here. I learned from that experience that practice makes perfect not only with fireworks but with videotaping, too. I was not going to let that happen to my show two days later. However, the fireworks show at my sisters house fired perfectly!

On July 3rd, I spent the entire day organizing and preparing for my 4th of July show. I definitely should of started earlier, but I did not know how everything was going to turn out at my sisters show with the glued and fused items the previous night. So, when the day finished, I had four 30 gallon stash bins filled with 20 repeaters each along with four small pieces of plywood with 4 repeaters each glued down for my finale. Also, I constructed one mortar bin for three two-inch salute shells and one 2. 5-inch explode ball shell. The second mortar bin was constructed for eight 1. 75-inch consumer shells. The finale consisted of the four repeater boards, the 20th item from each persons stash bin resting on each persons firing station board, two mortar bins, a big 8-shot pyro blaster tube, and three vulcan #100 tubes to be all fired at once. 

I spent some time mid afternoon on the 4th of July fusing my finale boards and mortar bins while everyone else played volleyball. Finale board one consisted of three 25-shot class "B" repeaters and one 50-shot class "B" repeater. Finale board two consisted of 4 different black cat repeaters. Finale board three consisted of two 100 shot saturn missles and two 150 shot saturn missles. Finale board four consisted of another variety of four 25-shot class "B" repeaters. After fusing all the repeaters on each board, I covered them with foil to prevent premature ignition from the four individual firing boards that would be set up to fire in a round-robin style out of each persons stash bin. Next, I loaded and fused all of the different size shells for each of the 12 mortar tubes spread across the two mortar bins. I covered these bins with foil, too. 

Throughout the remainder of the afternoon, the neighborhood was somewhat quite except for some single shot Thunder Kings, Warhead Missles, and 2-inch salute shells that I would send up randomly along with some high-powered firecrackers (which I don't think I need to name here) to kill time before the evening show. No one in the neighborhood had anything close to what I had unfortunately. This year seemed more quiet than previous years, maybe due to the 4th being on a weekday. 

Finally, evening came around and so did the rain. We had to wait about 30 minutes after nightfall in order to set up. It sucked setting up in the dark, but I did not want the fireworks to possibly get wet. Also, a cop car decided to come down my block just as I was dragging out the fireworks. Fortunately, he decided not to stop or cause us any grief. He probably did not even know what was inside of the stash bins or didn't care! We set the show up in my large back yard so that everyone could see the show from my deck and the other surrounding houses within the sub-division. The setup consisted of moving the four stash bins filled with repeaters to each persons firing station down in the yard. Each firing station was setup with one board and four bricks to make sure nothing tipped over during the show. Also, we put the four finale boards in front of each persons firing station for the finale shooting. Next, we strategically placed two mortar bins below each of the end firing stations and the pyro blaster and the three-shot #100 vulcan tubes below the middle two firing stations for the finale, too. Once we finished setting up the finale, we hung up three 5000 tau rolls of celebration crackers on three different hooks below the mortar bin setup. So, after we set all of that up, we started the show immediately since it started to dizzle once again. 

The show was started with me and two other friends lighting each one of the three celebration rolls at the bottom of the yard. Next, the three of us joined my fourth friend in lighting a smoke bomb and fountain each just above the finale boards for effect. Once those were lit and firing, we all proceeded to our individual firing stations and lit all of our first items from the stash bin together. The two end firing stations started with a Niagra falls and the two middle stations fired a North and South Repeater. This effect worked nice since there were fluffy comets going up on the ends of the yard while a barrage of loud shots were going up the middle of the yard. After that completed, we all proceeded to light items 2 - 19 in a round-robin style starting from the right station and going across to the left station until we got to the 20th item in each persons stash bin. 

We placed the 20th item from the stash bin on each persons firing station board and proceed up the yard to light the finale boards in tandem. Once all four finale boards were ignited, we proceed back to our firing stations and lit the 20th item that we placed there before the finale boards. Now, with anywhere from 15 to 20 repeaters of all shapes and sizes going off at once, we proceeded to the mortar bins and tubes. We ignited the mortar bins and tubes which all went up together and capped off a tremendous show. 

The entire show lasted about 20 minutes with the finale going for about two of those 20 minutes. The four of us received tons of appreciation not only from our party, but from everyone who saw the show within the neighborhood. I never realized how far my show was seen until people from other parts of the neighborhood were coming over to thank us for the show. Personnally, I thought we did a good job with the visco fuse setup, but next year I am going to try and quick match everything or even try to fire the show electronically for a smoother effect. I really did not get to enjoy the show until I sat down and watched the videotapes of the show that two of my friends taped for me. I really enjoyed the show a lot more on videotape since I missed most of it by performing the show. I recommend that all of you videotape your show since you will really appreciate it at a later time and during those cold winter months. Also, it will help make your show better the following year. As you can tell, I really can't wait until next year already. 

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Needless to say as predicted it was one of the more entertaining shows I've been able to put on. The family and neighbors were delighted. Everything went great with the exception of my brother's drunk redneck neighbor who took offense to me lauching ariel mortors and such above his home. . . . LOL. . . Geez what a jerk. So the show did end earlier and everyone wanted to. The good thing is that I still have tons of stuff left over for next year's show. Everyone was amazed at the number of cakes and had this year. One after another they went off with nothing say the ooh and ahh of everyone around. Can't remember how many times I heard. . . "WOw. . what's the name of that one?" God I love that feeling. . Oh and one more thing. A++++++ on the Dragon Pearl Roman candles. They were the best candles I've ever seen. I'm still looking forward to setting of that 50 shot Thunder King. That was supposed to be one of my finalies :( Oh almost forgot. . . Amazingly enough. . I was actually outdone by one of the neighbors down the street who happens to be a fireman. . go figure!!. Now I've been around fireworks, but I've never seen anything like what he had. I truly felt humbled, but am willing to the fact that he may have had a few better items. Now let me describe to you in detail what I saw and perhaps you can tell me what it is he had and how I may be able to get a hold of some for next year's show. The first one was a giant ariel repeater of some sort. Whereas my little cakes stand about 6 to 8 inches high. His were at least 2 to 3 feet in length. Kind of like a linked mortar arranged like a repeater. The effects were truly amazing to behold. each shot went up as either a gold or silver comet or no comet and all. The ensueing eruption was somewhat like a 100 wild hornets buzzing off in different directions. And this cloud was huge. Probably the size of one of my single canister mortars. And the sound!!!! Truly a sight. The second item of his was a repeating mortar also. It stood 3 feet high. and was red, white, and blue. . An awesome display. Each shot was different. . Had to be a mortar because of the sound. had around 15 to 20 shots. . . Awesome!!!!!!! Well I really don't know what else to tell you Bob. . This year's 4th was truly memorable. . Something I hope to duplicate again with the exception of the unruly neighbor. Hopefully you can help describe what kind of fireworks this neighbor had. 

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well my story isnt a 4th of july story, its a new years one. i hope you dont mind. well any ways i live in argentina (south america ) and fireworks here are completely legal including to minors, (in a minor ) so anyway my whole family is in our backyard and we put a rocket in a bottle and light it, but before it sets up into the sky, the bottle falls down and shoots into our neibors house and blows up in side the house, luckly nothing happens, thank god 

well that was it, pretty shitty, huh, well thats all i got thanks for reading it, bye 

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I kind of ILLegally bought some fire works in Florida because i live in the suckey state of Georgia. so they had a cop on every corner so nobody could shoot them off so i just did them the next day. Im not a fire works professional i only know that they are fun and im safe with them. I really wish they would make them legal in georgia because i have to wait a whole year before i can buy any more. We alwaysbuy fire works on the 1st of july on the way back from vacation but not very many big ones just a few fire crackers and smoke bombs. it really sucks that they had to pass that law in 1966 that made real M-80's and cherry bombs illegal because if they werent id like to buy some. by the way do you know if a real m-80 would blow up a mail box. Nice talking to you bye

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I hope this is not too late for your collection of stories. Here are some highlights. I constructed a 20 cue firing box for new years and added about 60 cues to it for our fourth of july celebration we actually shot our show on the weekend of the eighth. On the fourth we relaxed at home with my brothers family and grilled steaks and shot some small fun stuff for the kids. But our major accomplishment was the huge carbide gas cannon we built a few days earlier. We fired it off on the fourth. This thing really kicks. 

It has a report like a 3-inch aerial shell. We built it with pvc fittings and pipe and put it on a wooden carriage. It looks very realistic, just like a cannon off an old warship. We got the idea from and old magazine published in 1976. We had intended to include it in our show for the reports but we were just too loud.

Our show that we shot the next weekend looked nice but was an organizational nightmare. Because of vacations and work we just didn't have enough prep time. We shot only about 2/3rd's of our stash. We had no real firing order and alot of switches had nothing at all hooked to them which slowed down the show & one cake even tipped over. To top it all off we fouled up the video mostly what we got was my wife yelling an obscenity hear and there trying to get the video to work. Still we fired probably 20 diferent types of cakes in various numbers and 70 to 80 artillery shells we had hoped to do twice that. Next time will be different and much more fun. Hey thats what its all about!!!

My firing box and wiring are now all completed as well as several artillery boxes. We used extra long mailing tubes and cut them to the length we wanted and put a wood plug in the bottom. They were as heavy as some tubes you find on the single shot aerials. We reinforced them with strapping tape and placed them in heavy wooden boxes we constructed. Hopefully will get 2 to 3 or more shows out of them before we have to replace them all. It took some time but our cost was about 50 cents a tube. I'm desperately looking for a supplier of hdpe tube. This stuff is impossible to find. 

Now for some useful information. There were huge amount of new winda cakes on the market this year among others. I really could have used the latest info on your new cd rom. The best new cake i found and had not seen before is one called "a little green" by winda. It has very large green breaks with i believe white trails and it opens with a very good report. Get this one now it probably won't be around for long. It was especially nice because the vendor threw it in for free because of the size of my order. I wish i'd had a dozen of them. 

Also the finale was pretty good. I was able to pick up a couple of large cakes that came in plain brown box with flower basket and 1. 4g marked on the side. There was a "box 1" and a "box 2" but no name for the display. Each cardboard box had three units in it. Each unit had approximately 30 1-inch tubes some set at angles. They came with a wooden box with a lid that once held artillery shells for a howitzer. The cakes each had a timed fuse so they would go off simultaneously when lit together. 

It shot a barrage of beautiful gold comets with reports some at angles with different colored breaks over head my wife was able to get some nice photos of these going off. 

I've learned alot from "pyro" and many of the guys who write the articles but i've still got a ways to go. My family was a huge help in getting the show set up in the short amount of time we had. What can i say, my wife is a babe, she helped with wiring, loading artillery shells and making more quickmatch to the last minute not to mention all the photography. 

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My 4th of July extravaganza(that's what my small audience called it when I was finished) went extremely well--a full 4 hours worth of fireworks! We decided to go this year to Evanston, Wyoming where it is legal to light-up just about anything. They don't really care about fireworks-related danger in evanston because there's nothing to burn down except sagebrush! But we did have a nasty problem with wind. It seems every year we get chased-out by wind! 
This year we got to our favorite spot very early in the afternoon to set up all of my night gear. I had two launch pads that were just flat platforms that were raised up somewhat so that the fireworks crew could see them easily in the dark. The platforms were about 50 yards from the audience of about 25 people. Each platform had large cement cinder blocks to place over the shell launching tubes to keep them from tipping over. Each platform had two tubes on them at at time. I had lights set up with long extension cords that connected to a cigarette lighter in my van that ran all the way out to the platforms, where I had two small floodlights that illuminated the platforms all evening. This was done for safety purposes. These two platforms were placed at the bottom of a bowl-shaped rock quarry (there was no vegetation at all--just billions of small rocks) that was much like a glacier bowl that was about 200 yards across the top and was hollowed-out very deep so that those who were lighting the fireworks were at the bottom of the bowl and those who were watching were about 30 feet higher up and out on the edge of the bowl. This provided a great view and vantage point for the audience and was very
safe for the ignition crew of three men. Another small ignition stand/rack(with tubes) was built and placed near the platforms as a launching area for the following: large wheels, roman candles that were too dangerous to hold in the hand, and rockets. A rapid-fire bottle rocket launcher was fashioned out of a long metal strip, 70 aluminum covered straws, and screws to allow us to ignite 70 bottle rockets in succession. That was attached to the edge of one of the platforms. 

Our display started at about 7pm--with parachutes and a lot of day-type ground stuff for the little kiddies(smoke bombs, lots of firecrackers--celebration brand and black cat bricks, whistlers, etc). And that's when the wind started to come. Luckily we were in the bottom of this hollowed-out glacier-like rock quarry where the wind could not reach those who were launching. But the audience(which was higher-up on the edge of the bowl) got blasted for about an hour! But they were very patient and we just waited until it died down and then around 8:30 started going at it again. All-in-all, there were about 500 pounds worth of fireworks--mostly artillery shells and multi-shot repeaters. We had 14 boxes of a variety of shells, some triples, doubles, but mostly singles. They were the crowd favorites--especially since we had two launch pads we could get four shells exploding at once for great effects! Altogether we had about 250 mortar shells, 60 repeaters, hundreds of rockets, firecrackers galore, 
fountains, candles, spinners, buzz bombs, jets, missiles, and large #200 and #300 single shots. It was a very, very large supply for our crew of three launchers and we had an absolute blast! The crowd loved every minute of it(except for the wind) and we got loads of compliments and cheers that lasted until midnight--when a sheriffs deputy finally arrived and told us that we had to stop becuase all fireworks lighting in Evanston must not go past 11pm--so that was a bogus bite! But we got everything lit that we came for and for about two hours straight, the sky was filled with a constant array of beautiful color--and at the bottom--there were three very active, hard-working crew members that were moving quickly to provide a constant stream of variety and noisy punctuation. We loved every bit of it! 

Next year we are not going back to Wyoming though because the state is cursed with a WIND disease!!!! So, our group is looking for another spot that is legal. Do you have any advice? We want to go to a place where the illegal stuff is legal--and where we wont get hassled by any authorites of party crashers. We were thinking of perhaps an indian reservation down around NW Arizona or NE Nevada. Do you have any advice?

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My uncle had the best 4th of July party every year, for as long as I can remember. Everyone would bring food to share --- it all was so good. My mom always brought brownies. She had the BEST brownie recipe. Everyone else brought their best, too. 

When it would be starting to get dark, the kids would start lighting long strings of firecrackers. Then bottle rockets until it got really dark. After that, the kids would take turns lighting the color items --- fountains, Roman candles, helicopters, and other aerial displays. Back in the 50's, the firecrackers were much louder, and we even had cherry bombs and silver salutes. The older adults always had plenty of fun telling stories about some of the crazy things we did in the good old days. Like the time my cousin Tony peered into a big box of fireworks, and used a cigarette lighter to illuminate the contents! 

The excitement would last until the fireworks were all gone, and the yard was littered with Īdead soldiersā. Then my uncle would get out an ice-cold watermelon and slice it up for us. Nothing beats chilled watermelon after lighting fireworks on a hot summer night! 

For over 40 years, the party didnāt change, just the faces of the kids doing the lighting. I got married and bought a house in the suburbs. My next door neighbor had fireworks in his back yard every 4th, but I always begged off because I knew nothing could be better than my uncle's party. Finally he got too old and his wife, aunt Mary, got too sick, and the family tradition ended, so we started celebrating the 4th with our neighbors. 

We had the neighborhood party in my neighbor's yard every year, and his wife did almost all of the food. But one year, his wife was sick, so we moved the party into our driveway and turned it into a potluck picnic. We talked another neighbor into letting us use his driveway as the launching pad, because our yard has too many trees. The party got bigger every year. After the show, people would say something like, you really went overboard on the fireworks this year. 

Then three or four years ago, my brother (who now lives 500 miles away) discovered "Fireworks for Everyone" on the Internet, and ordered me a copy. I took it to the local stands that summer, and cherry-picked all the best items from the shelves. 

That year our party was the best ever! A spectator who was visiting from Missouri (the fireworks Mecca of the Midwest), said they were the most spectacular fireworks he had ever seen. We keep on getting better and better fireworks every year for the show. Last year several spectators said our show was better than Rosenblattā (Omaha's annual Grucci extravaganza, where they shoot off $100,000 worth of fireworks). 

Then we discovered a dealer who sells more of the big, high-quality fireworks than the local stands do, and at much better prices. 

You wouldn't believe this yearās party. What a BLAST! There were over 120 spectators --- we invited everybody we could think of --- neighbors, relatives, friends. We had over 200 double and triple break shells for a total of nearly 500 breaks. We had a couple guys doing four shells at a time, and two other guys doing one shell at a time. We had 10 fountains and 42 repeaters, all top-notch; two guys were tag-teaming them. And a box of Bird Bombs; three launchers. 

About 1/3 of the way into our show, two police cruisers came up our hill and flashed their lights --- for about 2 seconds --- then just waved at us and drove away! As the spectators cheered wildly. Apparently the officers had been unobtrusively watching our show from the bottom of the hill for about 20 minutes. 

About the time we started doing extra-loud repeaters, we ran out of 1-3/4 shells, so I sent someone over to get some Super Rockets. He brought back an entire case! And started lighting them in volleys of SIX with a blow torch! We went through seven BOXES of Super Rockets! 

But, you know what, no matter what we do, weāll never be able to out-do our memories of my uncle's 4th of July party. 

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8 adults, 2 teens, and 5 children were at my house July 4th. We began shooting off fireworks at 9:05 p. m. About 9:30 a police cruiser pulled up. The officer wrote my son (age 22) a ticket for "Illegal possession of fireworks" He explained that there was a city ordinance prohibiting the POSSESSION of fireworks within the city, and he then confiscated our fireworks. 
The fireworks stands are outside the city limits here in Texas by law. However, they can start selling fireworks from the 15th of the previous month. (June for July 4th, and December for New Years--Both are Federally mandated holidays celebrated with fireworks!) So John Q. Citizen can purchase fireworks for 15 to 19 days and may "stock up" for the approaching holiday. Right? Wrong. You see, when you drive or step off the fireworks stand premises, you are in the city limits, or in the county jurisdiction, or state, or Federal jurisdiction. If you are in the city limits of Denison, TX, you are IN POSSESSION. You can't set off fireworks in the county, state, or on Federal land. The county, state and Federal laws mention a designated "safe place or area" which are not provided by any of the forementioned jurisdictions! I asked another officer the next day, "What happened to our fireworks and all fireworks that were confiscated?" He answered that the wicks were pulled from some and some were then broken in half and they were then tossed into the landfill. Isn't that destruction of EVIDENCE? Also, so far I have not found anything in the ordinances or laws that give them the right to confiscate our fireworks. Any ideas? We're open to suggestions. My son pled not guilty, so we go to court Thurs. the 20th. 

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We decided last year after obtaining a small amount of fireworks at the last minute that with planning we could make next year one to remember. Since our family lives far apart we only get together a couple of times a year. We decided to make the 4th of July just as important as our Christmas celebration. So the planning began last year in August. I started by reading Fireworks for Everyone and the Fireworks A-Z Buyer's Guide (a major help). I put together my wish list and made trips to Maryland and Pennsylvania to obtain the fireworks. It seemed like the fourth would never get here. The day started with an old fashion lobster bake in the backyard with just the family. Every hour we launched either fountains or rockets to count down to the big spectacular. Our display was to take place in Upstate New York in my in- laws backyard (they have 4 acres of property). The afternoon was spent by my father in law, brother in-law and myself opening all the packages and marking the fuses for easy lighting. While the women and kids played in the pool and relaxed. We set up three launching sites, one for fountains, one for cakes and tubes, and one for rockets. My in-laws invited approx. 25 people to view the show, ages from 8 months to 65 years old. We had plenty of novelty stuff for the kid's as well as the adults, people began arriving around 8:30pm to claim their viewing seats and eat some chicken wings and other assorted munchies. The show was to begin at 9:00 p. m. After everyone was seated we distributed Lazer Viewer 3D glasses for everyone. (These were a huge hit with the kids and were great for viewing strobes and some of the fountains). We started the show with fountains - approx. 2 hours worth. We had the following City Fountains, Christmas Eve, Monarch of the Forest, View of the Mississippi, Yellow Bee, Strange Color, White Heat, Hawaiian Fountain, Fine Champagne, and Assorted Fountains (Alps, Scandinavian, & Monte Blanc). The crowd thought this was spectacular - not realizing what was yet to come. My wife and her friend did critique the evening for us so we would know what to buy for next year. Christmas Eve was voted to be the best. Although loud for little kids the colors and duration were a hit. We also enjoyed the Monarch of the Forest and View of the Mississippi. Next we fired off cakes and tubes. I am not exactly sure of the order but the following were lit Ace Combats, Autumn Drizzle, Battle of Lexington, Blinking Dragon Breath, Coconut Grove, Color Pearl Flowers, drinker of the Wind, Fire Astral, Killer Alligator, Kaleidoscope, Magician, Tower Assortments, Niagara falls (fused 4 together for waterfall effect - excellent), Super Stallion, Whirlwind, Violet Bloom, and Twitter Glitter. The ohs and aahs were through out this section. My 5 year old niece was very excited with anything that had purple in it as that is her favorite color. She kept yelling for everyone to put on their glasses. Even my 8 month old daughter was clapping her hands and starring in to the sky. I should say although it rained the day before and was somewhat cloudy during the day - the night was clear and perfect for the show. Nothing we shot off was a dud so it is hard to rate because everything was great, but a few stand outs are Killer Alligator, the Tower Assortment and Fire Astral. I also fused together Crazy Aces Roman Candles groups of 4 - the crowd enjoyed these. Amongst the cakes we had an assortment of 24 number 300 tubes. The crackling diamonds were awesome. These were really the crowd's favorites. They felt like they were at a professional show. Rockets were next Scorpion, Red Wave Willow Rockets, Galaxy 200 Rocket Assortment, and Sky Slams. Hands down the Red Wave Willows were the best. The height and diameter of the break were incredible. These are a must have for any show!! Just when the crowd thought it was over the final began!!!! I fused together using Quick Match and Visco four 18 shot finale racks (Patriotic Parades). Needless to say the crowd was dumbstruck by the finale!!! The entire show lasted about 1 hour and 10 minutes. I am happy to report that the police did not show up!! We invited all the neighbors so no one was able to call and report any disturbance. I've got some great stuff for our Christmas celebration, but I can't wait until July 4th next year. 

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I didn't get any video of the show, just the setup. My wife, who usually tapes the show had to help me fire it ! I was short handed and we work so well together that I enlisted her help ! It was one of our better efforts though! We took some of your advice and instead of reloading 6 or 8 mortars we had 38 plus twelve 2" shells I made, quick matched for part of the finale. We fired 76 of the "BlackCat Magnum "cannister shells (1. 75") they were great as usual, the ones with go getters getting a great round of applause ! They are huge (go getters) ! We fired 40 of " The Grizz "by Great Grizzly (1. 75"round shells ). These are the absolute best class C shells I have ever seen ! I have used these shells for years, they all have tiger tails, huge symmetrical breaks with great effects !! Well I thought they (Grizz ) were the best, but I bought some new cannister shells from Great Grizzly called THE PREDATOR when I made my final pre 4th run and thought I'd try a box of them in our show. WOW ! These are unbelievable !! I have shot some 4" & 6" shells so I have seen some bigger stuff up close but these shells are awesome, easily the highest, biggest break in a class C shell ! I should have bought all they had ! I called July 5th and my supplier was sold out, they said they would order me a case or two though! Didn't mean to get carried away about them but you got to see em! Oh yeah they are loud too! Well back to our show. We also fired 12 Black Cat "3rd Generation Artillery Shells" they are double breakers with pretty cool effects, nice palms & crackling but the break is not as large as others. I had a few Black Cat Cannon shells triple breaks not too impressive though. We fired 20 Excalibur cannister shells, very loud lift and ok break & effects. I bought & fired 24" Boom Man" cannister shells by Vulcan. They were ok nothing special and the cardboard mortars weren't worth a darn ! They also left a disc in the mortar almost everytime so if you were reloading this would be a problem ! We started the show with a couple of my 3" salutes, no flash, just Bp & some of my charcoal willow comp for a little color. They are still very loud and get up there around 400ft. They got everyones attention and we started lighting a few cakes. We started out with a Brothers "Beyond 2000" a good cake 25 shot with tails and quickend final 10 shots. We lit a Horror Night by Brothers as the final shots were firing. Cool 12 shots with a couple of spinners per shot with nice tails, the crowd liked it. We fired a 100 shot Saturn Missile batt. & started firing shells over top ! This got the crowd up !! We fired a new Brothers cake "Wild West " next kinda boring ! Then a Brothers "Wild Boar" a local crowd favorite ! Cool spinners great sound !We were firing shells over the top ! We got things rolling and fired two Brothers "Command Teste " with several shells over the top !We were rocking then ! Another Saturn Missile Bat. with those Predators over the top ! Wow! Back to the Command Teste for a minute, you know these are good but what concerns me is that I didn't see them in the Brothers 2001 Catalog, Hmm? Well anyway, we shot a Brothers "Killer Alligator" next, another local favorite !! Our show wouldn't be complete without one! Still firing shells over the top ! Another Saturn Missle Bat. 100 shot, they really like these with shells firing over them! We fired a new Brothers cake "Magic Carpet " I didn't really care for it but some of the crowd liked it. We keep the mortars hot meanwhile, My wife lights two Brothers, (we like Brothers) "Millennium Festivals " as I am firing shells as hard as I can go ! Were rocking again lighting another 100 shot Saturn missile bat. as the millennium festivals and shells are going ! Were ready for the finale ! We have Two 100 shot Saturn Missle bats. (we like these) 2 Brothers "China Dragons". A 19 shot "Nebula ". A Black Cat "19 Golden Palms " 2 Brothers 100shot "Millennium Bug" 2 "Command Teste" and a "Magic Carpet" firing at once & I light the quickmatch on my rack of 12 2"shells ! The crowd is up and yelling !! As the last spark is glowing I touch off two of my 3" Salutes (Flash this time) BOOM !BOOM ! Man that was good flash ! Thunder ! I'm tired ! Dang, I wish I had taped it ! We fired a "Parachute Battalion " for the kids, lots of parachutes. I also shot a couple of Black Cat "Chopper Attacks" The kids loved em ! My wife passed out sparklers And I started cleaning up ! Ready to do it again!!!  I'll get it on tape next time!

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I had $100 to spend on fireworks this 4th of July.  The stands opened on July 
3rd and I got them in the afternoon.  One big box and an assortment.  My 
sister took me to the local fireworks stand (Crazy Cracker).  We've been 
getting our fireworks there for about 4 or 5 years.  Me and my sister then 
did a few small day type fireworks on the 3rd.  Then that night we decided to 
do most of them on the 3rd.  I liked the "Sonic Daylight" firework and there 
were some new ones like 9" and all the old favorites.  Most people around the 
neighborhood were doing mostly shells and the loud kinds.  On the 4th, we did 
firecrackers and the assortment.  We had 3 bucks so we went up to the 
fireworks stand, but it was already closed---at 11:00!!!  My friend came over 
and we finished the night with smoke balls.  It was fun because there were 
the street lights and the smoke was going in them.

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Thanks to everyone who contributed a story. Maybe we'll do it again next year.
Remember, many of the techniques described in this document you should never try yourself.
Keep visiting  Fireworksland.com

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