Save this to your disk using the "Save As..." command. 
Then go to your word processing program, and open
the file "stories2003.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


Fireworksland.com
presents
"How I Spent My 4th of July" (2003 edition) 

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

Thank you to everyone who participated in this. The names of the contributors have not been included, because many contributors want to be anonymous. I'm sure you will recognize your story somewhere in this.

These stories were sent to me by e-mail in July 2003. Each story describes what that person did with fireworks to celebrate Independence Day in the United States, on July 4, 2003. 

Some of these stories may contain language which is not suitable for children. Please do not let children read through this collection of stories. 

The stories are almost completely unedited. I decided to leave the stories just as they were submitted to me, with spelling errors and everything. Only certain curse words and profanity have been removed or substitued. Sorry... if your story had a word edited out of it, itŐs only because a lot of young people may be reading this.

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 To avoid possible violation of copyright law, please do not publish, copy, post or transmit this text to anyone else. 

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 I was specifically requested to leave the name in). No attempt has been made to correct any spelling errors, punctuation or grammatical errors, and there are many errors. In some stories you will need to just accept bad spelling and grammar to read a good story. To edit these stories to make the English correct may have ruined the flavor and character of the story, so they are not edited.

The opinions about the performances of fireworks on the market which appear in these stories are strictly the opinions of the authors of the stories! They do not reflect the opinions of myself about the particular fireworks mentioned.

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 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 are one of the 35 people 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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Hey everyone, hope you all had a great 4th of July this year. This years 4th was the best I have every had. This is a long story but here it goes. I will first give you some background information about myself. I am 15 years old and live in New Jersey. The fireworks laws in NJ are terrible. Everything except paper and plastic caps are illegal here. I have to travel hundreds of miles just to get some good fireworks. Luckily, my sister goes to college in Charleston, SC. So whenever we have to drive and bring her stuff down, we have to make a pit stop for fireworks. That being said, we went to SC in February to visit my sister and on the way back I stopped at Jab's and spent $65. At Jab's prices, that 65 bucks got me a lot. And also I had a box full of fireworks leftover from last years stop at Jab's and other fireworks I had. With this 65 bucks I got some large fountains, bottle rockets, texas pop rockets and tons of rockets that size, some lady fingers, a 12/40 brick of thunderbombs(cost .88), planes, novelties, small repeaters, and a bunch of other things I can't remember. After that stop, I had a pretty nice selection of stuff at home, but still not good enough. I was able to go again to SC in may, but my parents didn't want me to get anything so I could only manage to stop at a store and spend 8 bucks. What a waste of traveling like 700 miles. I discovered while at the store, that they can't sell the real bottle rockets in sc, only the larger ones. I picked up a 24 pack of large moon travelers, some thunderous king single shots, twitter glitter, and a rock n roll repeater. After that I had approx. 150 bucks worth of fireworks at home. I still needed to get some larger things. I found someone online in PA who was selling good stuff at cheap prices and would ship here. I made a few orders from him totaling about 300 bucks. I ordered a bunch of extra packs of water dynamite, roman candles, and grosses of bottle rockets, which I would sell to friends. By selling these things to my friends, this would help me make my money back on everything I had bought. I also ordered cases of sparklers, snaps, party poppers, and smoke bombs to sell online through yahoo auctions and ebay. These sold really well and I made about 300 bucks in the 2 weeks prior to the 4th. This and selling to friends easily paid for my fireworks. From that guy in pa I bought a bunch of different stuff...mini mortar kits, rockets, single shot shells, and too much other stuff to list. Ok, so now I have my stuff and now its time to start lighting stuff off. All the time during the year I would be doing small things in my yard. Then around when school ended(june 18) I did some bottle rockets in my yard. Can't do anything big because I live in a neighborhood and remember it's NJ. For the months and weeks leading up to the 4th I couldn't wait. Here is what I did the 3rd - 5th.
July 3rd: on the 3rd I brought some rockets down to my friends house who lives on the river. We did those which were 6 oz dragons. it wasn't that great. He also did a ringo star rocket out of a lacrosse shaft. That thing was huge and screamed on the way then fell to the water and blew up. After that I hea ded home and did some small things in my yard. Just snakes, bees, jumping jacks, and sparklers because I had so much of that stuff that I needed to use it up. Then I packed some whistling bottle rockets and waited for my aunt and uncle to pick me up. We then went to my cousins apartment where we would watch the largest display in NJ. Before the show I heard stuff going up all around us. I asked my cousin and he said no fireworks. Then we watched the show which was really good and by Grucci. Even though it was nice, I wanted to do my own. After, people did there big stuff and again my cousin said...no fireworks. Well, that night went by and nothing exciting. I got home and my friend called me(the one by the river) and said he was having a family party the night of the 4th so I should bring tons of fireworks to sell him during the day. Thats the 3rd for me.
July 4th: I wake up around 1030..call my friend...no response. Go down to fill my backpack with fireworks. Get everything in there and finally get a hold of my friend. Get to his house and show him all the stuff I brought(12:00). I had so much with me. He said hed give me 66 for it cause thats all he had. Then we started to light stuff off. We did a ton of stuff...lots of rockets that we shot out of a huge pipe we found. We did a bunch of bottle rockets and larger rockets. I had some modified texas pop rkts, and was happy to see that they worked well. My friend also did a huge ring shell rocket that he stuck in the ground. It never left the ground and had a huge explosion. No injuries or cops yet. Meanwhile..his neighbors had people over and they were all sitting on their deck. Some more time goes by and we do more and more stuff. 
While in his room...he decides to throw a 40 string of thunderbombs out the window...pretty loud. Well as the day went on we continued to do rockets, firecrackers, spinners, etc. By the time I was about to leave, someone decided to get out my 100 shot saturn missile and tape it to his neighbors rc car....we lit it and drove it around while going off. What a sight! It was awesome and very loud. My friends mom came out and said to come in before the cops arrived. Still no cops. Then around 4:30 I had to head home to get ready for my grandparents. I got home and loaded all my boxes into the back of our car. Then a little after 5 I arrived at my grandparents house. They have a huge yard about 15 mins away near where not many people live. My relatives were thrilled to see that I had arrived with tons of goods. I looked through my stuff for a few minutes and then my cousin begged me to come outside. I started off giving him sparklers and doing smoke bombs. I did a lot more of those then did some planes, fountains and spinners. I also used a 40" mammoth parachute. 
This worked but did not open to the full 40" like expected. This was ok, but I won't buy it again. I then did a 5 parachutes with flags by black cat. This was excellent. It shot up a huge tube and down came 4 small parachutes and a large parachute carrying and american flag, and 2 bc flags. Everyone loved this item. After that I did some more small things and some rockets. Then later on, my parents arrived from a party that they had been at. This is when I brought out larger items. I started to do my roman candles which were very good. I was able to hold some in my hand, which does not burn at all(never tried before). I also did some larger rockets and some bottle rockets. Around this time...I discovered I had some competition somewhere due to the sound of firecrackers and rockets down the street. To compete...I did some m-100 rockets which have a loud whistle to double report. I also did a bunch of whistling moon travelers to get there attention. It slowed down a little so I continued to shoot off the tons of 6 and 8oz rockets I had. I had some west lake which were ok and also dragon. I kept doing roman candles, rockets, and roman candles, and planes, etc. etc. Then it began to get darker and everything looked great at night. As before...I kept on going with a mixture of items. Now for the "finale". Again, I began to hear noises in the distance. To beat the competition, I decided I would have to wrap everything up and do some of my mortars. The only ones I had were 2 kits of 1" Little Big Shells by Glorious. I began to do these and was not expecting much. These shells have awesome effects and are very loud. The breaks are just as big as 1.75 shells, but do not go as high. I was very impressed by these and so was the whole family. While lighting these, I set a 36 shot happy fireworks in the back. That was decent. I kept doing mortars until my parents rushed me into leaving. Then I put in the 2 willows I fused together for my ending. These willows were great for a class c shell, and especially for a 1" shell. They had beautiful golden willows that went almost to the ground. Well, thats it for the 4th at my grandparents. I then went home and finished off some bees and planes. I listened in my neighborhood and.....silence...nothing. Then I saw people across the street doing some fountains..nothing good. I then decided I would take a bike ride around town. For a while it was quiet...then every few minutes I would hear a whistle and some bangs. I rode all over town but mostly nothing. I would say out of my whole town, less than 50 people shot stuff off. I then went home and called it a night.
July 5th: Got up around 9...went to my grandparents to clean up. Pieces of the shells were everywhere and tons of empty fountains, roman candles, etc.,etc. Then did the rest of my small fountains, and other quiet things. This day I sustained the worst injury I ever had due to fireworks. This was a small burn on my thumb from a smoke bomb...not even any pain and no band aid or anything required. After this went home and went to a friends house later. Heard some rockets and other stuff but nothing as much as friday. July 6th: Thought it was over...not quite. Went to a friends pool party. Once it got dark, there was a pleasant surprise. My friend brought out some roman candles and began shooting them all over and at the pool. I got shot in the stomach with one, but I barely felt it. Then he brought out a 120 shot barrage. This thing was awesome and even had some reports. Then he brought out a mortar kit. These were 1.75 shells. They were awesome! They went high over his house and broke with tons of noise. The breaks were just as big as my 1" shells but higher. He also did more bottle rockets and roman candles. No cops. Then we were in his driveway before we were leaving and did some more. This night ended my 4th of July celebration. Wow, what a year. My best 4th ever. And no cops at all! I hope NJ legalizes some fireworks for next year, maybe safe and sane or something. Well, hope this story wasn't too boring and long. Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th! Already counting down the days till next 4th!


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 Went to a friend's backyard party for the 4th. They told me not to bring fireworks because of their wood deck, not even sparklers because of the ash around the pool. About 50 guys. We watched the DC show on TV.
 
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Well, I had a great time. I tried many new 500 gram cakes with great success. I purchased them from patriotic fireworks located in Maryland. They sell now there own brand of fireworks Glorious and Orion brand. The Orion brand double brakes were absolutely great. Best beaks I've seen yet! And the combination of brothers brand and Glorious brand 500 gram cakes were phenomenal. I haven't ever seen consumer fireworks ever look so great. I also had some rockets called kar76 I believe there flower basket brand. You had to see the breaks on these things. They looked better than a lot of professional 3 inch shells I've seen! I truly had a great fourth! The cops came by a few times but were very nice about every thing. They just wanted everything done early. I truly like firing a lot of the heavy weight cakes at the same time. Since I purchased them at wholesale it wasn't to bad as far as expense goes. I think I'll being doing more shows this way in the future. Hope you had a great time.
See Ya Around The Bend!
Wow, truly a great day! I had to work on the 4th, but was able to get home in time for the works. But your story was able to remind me of the good old days, when I would get up early in the morning and light a 3 inch salute. Usually when the first firework was heard, it was officially the fourth and everyone would start the day lighting firecracker belts, whistling rockets and fountains. I live in New York City, this was the time before Rudolph Guliani was mayor. And it was pretty much anything goes attitude on the fourth. People were actually lighting professional fireworks in the city streets! The fortunate thing was that know one really would get hurt except for the foolish few who would play with large crackers or M-80's as known in other circles. Many city blocks would turn into out right competition's against one another by trying to out do each other. But once the new mayor came into town, it was all over. And now that he's gone, slowly but surely were getting back our freedom of lighting fireworks again. I'm planning to go all out next year and put on a great show for the neighborhood. I hope it goes great! Have a nice day.

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Thanks for your response! This year my wife and I had more guests than ever and expectations for a show were higher than last year. We were able to obtain sweet deals on a rather large amount of fireworks for the money that we spent. We shot mostly cakes and reloadables this year. Nevertheless in buying large amounts of different brands I have noticed some interesting differences. Generally speaking the older Black Cat cakes were most dissapointing like Dazzling Sky Popper, Mean Green, Torino II, Lightning Storm. However the new Black Cat items were pretty good but the breaks were not quite as big or as high as they should be. They were Sky Climber, Sky Wars, Blue on Blue, Twenty Thieves, Sunflower. The Black Cat so called 500 gram Cakes we had were Gunga Din, and Sparkling Willows and the Wave. These were pretty good but they should not be classified as 500 gram cakes. They just did not have the same punch as some of the other brands.
We also had some Cannon Brand Cakes ( why do they not have a website?) which I must say most of them were spectacular! Premium Golden palms, Big Blowout were awesome for average size cakes. The 500 gram cakes we had from Cannon were Max Performance- great, Pyro Force- fair and Pyro Battle-fair. My neighbor had the 500 gram Tiger Thunder- great. 
We also had Fireworks over America or Showtime brand cakes. They were for the most part pretty good. The 500 gram cake we had from them was Big Bad and Loud and it was really good.
We also had some other 500 gram cakes from Brothers, Special Forces-great, American homeland-great. W also had the Big Package from World Class Fireworks which was surprisingly pretty good.

The artillery shells we had this year were for the most part indistinguishable except for the Black Cat BAR shells which were AWESOME. Also we had some from a smaller company called Forward Fireworks. They were doubles that were pretty nice.
If you have any influence at Black Cat you should tell them that they better come with it because side by side with the other brands they are losing as far as the size and height of the bursts. The packaging is really slick but it really does not matter after you light it. i know they have the new Gold Class but we will see. I know in the future its Brothers and Cannon and just a few Black Cat depending on the cost.

Oh! I almost forgot. The neighbor behind me travels 2 states away to Phantom to get her fireworks so anyway we talked and we traded a few items. Well, I must say the two items she traded me for were really awesome so if they are all that way I might be travelling as well. The two cakes were blue tipped willows- sensational and red rain - pretty good. 

Thats it. I hope this is what you wanted. 

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I started out by buying some ilegal fireworks from a dealer near my house. I ended up buying about $150 worth. on the 4th of July me and my brothers lit a few piccolo pete bombs, someone passed by and said we popped his ears and I told him to shut up. At about 3:00 p.m. I went over to my cousins house for a party, I didn't want to go until I found out that there would be no fireworks show near my house this year. at about 7:00 p.m we started to light a few bombs and m-80's, but for some reason a lot of them were weak. I then decided to go make one and that one was loud, the neighbors next door began cheering. as it started to get darker my little cousins began to light some little fountains and ground spinners. those were pretty boring so I went to the backyard. I was waiting for the firework show to start but it wouldn't start so I went back to the front yard where everyone was beginning to light fireworks. By this time the neighbors had begun to light their weak little fireworks. My cousin then showed up and he told me that there was a cop up the street with his lights off waiting to bust people. I then heard a loud boom and I knew the firework show had begun. I went to the backyard to watch the show. for some reason this show was really boring, it lacked excitement. I was dissapointed that there was no show near my house because that show is usually amazing. once the boring firework show was over I went to the front ready to light my fireworks. I started out with an Alien brand 2000 strip of firecrackers. My brother opened it up wrong so I lit the wrong side of the string. it popped kind of slow and boring. I then went and lit the other side which was the correct side, it then began to pop like I wanted it to. once it was over I got some claps from the neighbors and some family members. I then began to light some crackling roman candles and some whistling bottle rockets. My cousin then lit a 100 shot saturn missile. After this my little brother lit a few alien brand artillery shells, and my friend lit some whistling buster artillary shells. I then headed to my car to take out my 12 pack of Alien Super Magnum Artillery shells. I opened the box and put a shell into the tube, as I walked over to put it down, my brother said "Cops" "cops" I looked back and he was coming in his motorcycle with his lights of. I took of with the tube in my hands and my brother had the whole box of shells he threw the box under a car so the cop wouldn't see them. while the cop was driving up a little kid lit a bottle rocket and the cop saw it. from then on we stopped lighting fireworks because the cop said he would give the house owner a ticket if he saw anymore ilegal fireworks go off. while the cop was talking to my aunt, the neighbors went to their backyard and lit a cake, but the cop didn't do anything about it. We then left home and we lit up some bombs and all of my alien artillery shells. those babies were bad, when they shoot out of the tube, they make a huge explosion and in the air they make a huge break. After I finished lighting my shells I went inside because it was already like 12:30 AM. overall this 4th of July was a bust because the cops messed it up and I am left with A box of double impact artillery shells, 2 bricks of firecrackers, 2 bricks of whistling bottle rockets, a pack of roman candles, and a 2000 string of firecrackers. I guess I will be saving these for new years. 

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Well everything went well!! Not a cop in sight despite my friends in E PA (who help me get shipments from superior) who said cops drove by on scooters/mopeds searching everyone's yard for them! I had an audience in the local mall and neighbors too .... I was truely impressed w/ Orion's #200 aerial shell tubes, not only did they have a great burst but the lift charge out of the mortar was LOUD. The pyronormal experience shells and the bombs bursting in air canister shells were EXCELLENT --- though I am still disapointed about not getting the RAMBO kid kit. The LOYAL to NONE was an EXCELLENT 500 grame repeater/finale and was a great crowd pleaser.

THE BLACK CAT FINALE rack --- "QUAD POWER" was a bust! The quad shells were not as strong as some reloadable kits and the frequency was slow. 

THANKS for all the help this year and I am already planning for the next show. I am going to buy mortar racks from that WISCONSIN website. 

Many of my family and friends gave me hand shakes and exclaimed things like "that was the best fireworks I have seen" .... "they were like professional fireworks" and "this is the best 4th of july ever" ..... Perhaps the most touching aspect was my grandfather. He and I have this bond of lighting fireworks, always have and he introduced me to them a long time ago. EVEN to this day we still do it. However he is an old timer and was amazed by the shells and cakes I had. He sat back and watched w/ his coffee at first but quickly put it down and joined me in lighting shell after shell. He really enjoyed himself and was really excited afterwards --- even offered to buy for the next show! BUT it was touching to me to see him enjoy himself and this bond we have. 

He did load ONE canister shell wrong and we ended up having it break inside the HDPE tube. HOWEVER the HDPE hardly broke. JUST the base blew off ..... but the actual tube remained in tact. A good reason to by racks of HDPE for the next show!

I like making people feel good .... and when I can do that w/ fireworks even here in NJ, I feel like I accomplished something. I ought to after paying nearly 400 dollars for my show too! lol .... 

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Hi Bob, I had a great 4th of July, I went to some fireworks tents in Jacksboro, TN and I bought some good fireworks and they were pretty. On the 4th of July, I went to my friend's house and shot some pretty fireworks. 

Before we shot all of the pretty fireworks, we shot the "Fly The Flag" daytime parachutes, they were the coolest ones I have seen, I shot this and the following fireworks at my friend's house, 

*News Transmitter (I really loved this one, I am going to buy 2 or 3 of them next year)

*Cherry Bomb American Celebration (It was very neat and cool, I might buy this one next year)

*Blak Cat Loud & Lavender (This was so pretty, loud, and cool, I am definitely buying this one next year)

*Cannon Brand Astro Plasma (This was so quick, but okay, I might buy one next year)

*Cannon Brand Pyro Fever (This was the coolest multi-shot aerial that I have ever seen, it had great effects and good booms, if you wanna buy something cool, buy this one, you will love it)

*Space Age 21 Gun Salute (This featured a fountain with 21 loud aerial shots, it was neat and included a whistle at the end, if you wanna buy something cool, buy this one, I might buy this one next year) 

*Cannon Brand V-Day (It was an okay fountain to me, but I probably will get it next year)

*Cannon Brand Independence Assault (This was a unique multi-shot aerial, it had some good shots with a silver spring, if you wanna buy something neat, buy this one)

*Cannon Brand Tri-Light Saturn Missile (This was cool, because it had the loud whistles with crackles and I even liked the 13-shot finale, this is a must buy for any fireworks fan)

*Cannon Brand Crackling Candle (This is the roman candle for the roman candle fan, it features 10 balls with crackles, this is so cool and I like it, I might buy a 6-pack of those next year)

*Black Cat Gatling Pack Roman Candles (I loved them, they were so neat and good to shoot, I even loved the "Double Barrel" and "Modified Barrel", they were so cool, I love roman candles like these, I might buy these next year) 

*World Class Roman Candle 4-Pack (These roman candles were also neat and great, I even loved the ones where they screeched, my friend brought these and I might even buy them next year)

*Dragon Crackling Artillery Shell (These artillery shells were the coolest, it shot a big star in the sky with loud crackling, if you want power and skill, get these shells, I will get a box next year) 

Bob, I hope that you had a great 4th of July as much as I did and I will even have a bigger 4th of July next year.

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All I did on the 4th was light some old C3 Zebras, C3 Cock Brand, and some Super Big Pigs during the day. I stayed in at night.....didn't light one single repeater!!!! I must be getting old. However, I had shot my $1,600 show on the night of my Mom's 70th birthday party on June 21st! That was the best show I've ever done! Then I helped a friend fire a little 12 minute show in Dorr on July 3rd - after Chris Cagle (country singer) did his concert. That one was also a spectacular show! I guess I'd just had my fill and was pooped out by the Fourth!

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Our 4th was AWESOME! In June I started making the rounds to all the fireworks stores within Ohio & parts of Indiana. Most of the fireworks came from Phantom because I'm a premier cardholder...buy one get one or two free! By the 4th I had a truckload to take out to my brother's (he has 5 acres to "play" on). While the gals prepared the day's feast, the guys unloaded & sorted all the fireworks. Firing order wasn't really planned except for the grand finale. As soon as we unloaded we started playing with the fireworks. Between the brothers, uncles, and nephews we went through 100's of packs of firecrackers and bottlerockets. We blew up cups and cans and had a big bucket of water for several different types of water proof crackers (about 1200 of them!). We passed the afternoon making a lot of noise, eating and swimming. Near dusk we got the "launch" tubes ready and set up a big board for the fountains etc. When it finally got dark the real fun began! We had high power rockets, reloadable mortars, 500 gram fountains, aerial repeaters. We didn't have any fancy electronic igniters just good ol' punks and Bics. The fuses on the grand finale were taped together (simple, but it worked!) & took my brother & I to each light an end ea.(and then we ran LOL!). It went off without a hitch. The grand finale consisted of ten 500 gram aerial final repeaters.The "gallery" cheered and applauded and gave us a standing ovation. A couple of cars were going by and started beeping their horns! Can't wait until next year...we'll start buying in May! It'll be bigger and better!
BTW, there wasn't a dud in the bunch!!! Here's some the really impressive new items we used:
Whistling Crackers, America Rising Quad shells (the best reloadable mortar I ever had), Phantom Crackling Missile Base 300 ct. (awesome for day or night!), & New York Harbor 500 gram fountain (lasted about 7 minutes!).
Hope everyone had a fun, safe 4th!

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Like every 4th of July down south you keep your fingers crossed that it won't rain. It had been raining all week on the gulf coast. By 3:00 the rain had stopped and it was time to have FUN. My firework show was done on the beach in a nice open area. There was a bonfire and volleyball and good time was had by all. My show consisted of mostly multi shot cakes. I had 6 sheet of 4X4 plywood with cakes glued down and fused together. The last two boards were finale boards that were wired together and hooked to my pyromate system. Everything went GREAT!!!! Cakes that impressed me:
1) One Bad Mother
2) Americas Pride
3)Century Garden
4)Big Blowout


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WELL THIS YEAR WAS THEBEST EVER I HAD OVER 100 SHELLS 20 CAKES AND 2000 FIRECRACKERS AND 1008 BOTTLEROCKETS 14 CANDLES AND SOME PLANES AND STUFF LITTLE STUFF THAT WAS LEGAL WHERE I LVEI N NC WITCH WAS NOT MUCH SO I WENT TO T.N. AND GOT MY STUFF IT WAS ME DUSTY AND MY BEST FRIEND CHRIS WE WENT TO TNN 3 TIMES AND ALL 2 HETGER WE SPENT ABOUT 250 IT WAS COLL AS CRAP CAUSE THE FIREWORK STORE WE STOP AT WAS SETING OFF SHELLS WHILEW WE WAS THERE AND THERE STUFF IS CHEAP ANY WAY IT TOOK US ALL DAY 2 SET THE STUFF UP WE HAD 2 ROMANCANDLE RACKS 2 BOTTLEROCKET RACKS AND A SHELL RACK IN ALL WE HAD 37 TUBES AND A LOT OF PLY WOOD WITH CAKES ON THEM IM AND IF U WONT SOME KILLER SHEKKS GET WORLDCLASS BRAND AND A AWSOME CAKE IS GO TO BE THE AMERICAN BY BROTHERSJUST GLAD THERE WAS NO COPS AND I HOPE EVER 1 ELSE HAD A GOOD 4THAND IF U WONT THE LAWS CHANGED AND LIVE IN N.C. WRIGHR TO THE CAP. AND I WONT ALL THE FIREWORK PIC I CAN GET IF U SEND MW SOME I WILL SEND U SOME ASLS MY AOL SN IS FIREWORKDUDE3 AND 1S AGAIN FIREWORKS4LIFE

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First off, I had another great 4th of July. Hope yours was enjoyable too. 

As usual my 4th of July started July 5th of last year. I rate all the fireworks that I shot off and make a note of those I liked and those that didn't perform that well. Those that were outstanding are put onto next years list. I wait until February or so of the following year to start searching the web for new fireworks and new pricelists. I visit my two favorite fireworks manufacturers (brothers pyrotechnics and black cat fireworks) and peruse their new fireworks. I make a list of those that sound interesting and wait for the new pricelist from my supplier (victory fireworks out of Wisconsin). Sometime in April the new list is published and I look for the items that I want. Since I go in with several friends and co-workers we are able to order wholesaler (case lots). I compile a list of recommendations for everyone to choose what they want. I usually break the list down into reloadables, regular multi-shots, 500 gram multi-shots and assortment packs. This year I also included daytime fireworks and professional displays (as named by brothers). With a little finagling we are able to fill out the cases. I place the order sometime in the middle of May. This year we ordered 22 different cases of fireworks. The order arrived a week later. I picked up the order from the trucking company (600+ pounds worth) with a couple of vehicles and started to divide the individual orders. 

When the tents open up around town I make my usual pilgrimage to pick up smaller items for the kids. About a week before the 4th of July I start to prepare the fireworks. To me this means taking off the cellophane from the top, cutting the wick free and unwrapping the wicks on the reloadables. Then the long wait until the 4th.

On July 3rd I let the kids shoot off the smaller items. At 9:00 they started to shoot off their rockets, fountains, roman candles and cakes. About 10:00 they were done.

It was hot (95) and humid on the 4th. We had a BBQ and swim party prior the festivities starting. At 8:00 I loaded up the car with all the fireworks. This keeps them safe in case of an errant firework and are easy to get to. At about 8:30 I started with the daytime fireworks (sky painter). This cake shot up 19 parachutes that trailed multi-colored smoke. I was a little disappointed in the quantity of smoke. Each shot went well into the sky and each parachute unfolded with no problem. There was no wind so they stayed in the area. The kids enjoyed chasing and gathering the parachutes more than the smoke. Since I still had some time before dark we through as many firecracker packs as possible (I had six bricks (80x16) to go through)). I also unwrapped 18 boxes of snakes (108 all together), placed them into a pile and lit it with a propane torch. It was rather interesting to see a snake 4 inches thick start to rise (vaguely reminiscent of a south park episode). It lasted for about a minute and ended up being about a yard long. Next time I'll try to make a pyramid and use more snakes.

When it finally got dark, around 9:00, I started with the other items. About 10:15 I was finally done. For the entire time I was lighting a new firework as soon as the other had finished. Fallout stayed clear of my head and I didn't have any errant or misfired fireworks. A couple of leaf blowers and several trash cans later and everything was cleaned up. Below is a list of the fireworks I shot, my description and a rating (1-10). 

Scorching Good Gear (brothers) - a reloadable kit that included double, triple, quadruple and quintuple break shells (43 in all). Not a bad display for shells only 1" big. They shot high and a good variety of effects. Firing more than one shell gave a small "finale" look. I'd rate this an 8. 

Call From Outerspace (brothers) - a regular cake that has 102 shots. The shots are either crackling, red w/ report or green w/ report. The last 30 shots are shot in quick succession. Not a bad little cake for the price. Rating 9. 

Super Crackling Rainbow (exclusive of victory fireworks) - a normal cake with 25 shots. The shots crackle on the way up and have a large color break at the top. This has always been a crowd favorite and will continue to be on my list. Rating 10.

Desperate Attempt (behai) - A large cake that has 16 shots. This cake was recommended by fireworksland in 2001 so I decided to try it out. It has a crossette effect (see fireworksland for a better description). It was an interesting effect and different than almost all the other fireworks with their regular color breaks. The kids in the audience liked this one. If you are looking for a different effect then get this. Rating 8. 

Saturn Missile Battery 300 shot (exclusive of victory fireworks) - A saturn missile battery on steroids. Each shot whistles on the way up with a report at the end. I really enjoyed the intermittent bursts of shots. It seemed that the last 100 or so went off within a second or two of each other. This makes it a very noisy cake. Rating 9.

Hollywood Trip (brothers) - A normal cake with 25 shots. Each shot has a different color break at the top. No sound on the way up though. The last 10 shots are in rapid succession. Rating 8. 

Red, White and Blue Salute (brothers) - A cake with some fan shaped affects with 24 shots. This cake is interesting in that it alternates it's affects. First it will shoot 5 shots in rapid succession with color breaks at the top. Then three fan shaped shots are sent up at once. These are color breaks at the top. This repeats 3 times. Rating 9.

Aerial Double Decker (black cat) - A two layered cake with 20? shots. When each shell is shot a small effect is released just above the cake while the main shot breaks much higher. The small effect of this cake was a few crackles on top of a rather bland main break. I was a little disappointed in this cake. Rating 6. 

Double Delight (black cat) - A two layered cake with 20? shots. Same as the aerial double decker above except the small affect of this cake were red and green mines above the cake. Similar to a short burst from a fountain. The large breaks were each different which varied the affects of the firework. Much better than the aerial double decker. Rating 8. 

Heartstopper (black cat) - A large fan shaped cake with 20 shots. This is a large fan shaped cake (maybe 15"w x 6"d x 8"h) that shoots four sets of 5 shells. Each set has a different effect including color breaks, silver breaks and crackling breaks (can't remember the first). Looks like a smaller version of blue print by brothers. I like the fan shaped affect which gives your show a 'professional' look. Rating 8.

Air Borne Art (brothers professional series) - A triangular fan shaped cake with 21 shots. This cake shoots 6 sets of shots starting with 1 shot, then 2 at a time, 3, etc up to 6 shots. Each set is in a fan shape and each has a different effect. The affects of this cake are all different color breaks. Again the fan shaped affect gives a 'professional' look. Rating 8.5. I rated it slightly better than heartstopper because there are more affects. 

Kaleidoscope (brothers professional series) - A triangular fan shaped cake with 21 shots. Same as air borne art except the affects are different. This cake has color breaks, plus whistling breaks, spinner breaks and reports. Rating 9. I rated this slightly better than air borne art because it has more varied affects, not just color breaks.

Sky Painter (black cat) - A daytime cake with 19 shots. Each shell has a parachute and streams smoke on the way down. Rating 6. Not very exciting, regular parachutes will do just fine.

Blond Joke (brothers) - A 500 gram cake with 36 shots. An outstanding cake with different color breaks and crackling. Each shot has a large break with the final 12 shots at the same time. This would make a fine finale piece. Rating 10.

Atom Bomb (brothers) - A 500 gram cake with 36 shots. Another outstanding cake with different color breaks including some crackling on the way up. The final 12 shots are done at the same time. This too would make a great finale piece. Rating 10.

Pyro Overdrive (victory fireworks exclusive) - A 500 gram cake with 16 shots. The color breaks on this cake went higher than any other cake and seemed to break bigger than all the others. It just didn't have the finale look and feel. With it's higher cost and poorer performance I'd have to rate this an 8. 

Since I had two or more of each cake I tried to mix them up with a few reloadables interspersed here and there. I've already added a few more people to the list for next year. Hopefully the variety that I order next year will be even better.

I'd like to reduce the number of reloadable shells and increase the number of cakes, especially the 500 gram ones. I'm also thinking about trying the roman candle "trick" as explained in last years letters. Thanks for the great website and keep up the good work.


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My fireworks story for 2003.

My 4th of July fireworks were GREAT!!! My story starts 14 months ago. The community I live in would hire a fireworks show company every year. It would cost any where from $3,000 to $5,000. The fireworks were good, but they where over in 15 minutes (Yes, I know. Give anyone who reads these stories (at Fireworksland.com) that much money and you'd be up half the night shooting them off. Doesn't sound that bad actually.), it was a bit disappointing. Last year, 2002, my community was going through a budget crisis so the yearly fireworks display was canceled. I came up with the idea to do a smaller, non-professional, show. Donations would be solicited and a nice show put on. Challenge #1 was doing it legal (I live in Florida, where most fireworks are illegal, but there are hundreds of fireworks stands with all the good stuff). The local fire marshal was actually good about it, pay $50 for a permit, get your insurance, and they would send a fire truck to stand by. I bought Bob's videos to educate myself on how to do a entertaining and safe show. Monies were pledged. We were almost ready. The insurance was the hard part. We asked the community 's insurance company what it would cost for an insurance rider, they freaked, not only would they not write the rider, but they demanded we not have any fireworks, not even professionals; or else they would cancel all our insurance. Sadly the fireworks were cancelled. 

Cut to 2003. The old insurance company cut us off anyway. The new one did not care. So we were on. I made the detailed proposal at a Board of Directors meeting. And walked out with $1200 in pledges for this year's display (a lot of good people here). Now I had to actually produce a show. I got Bob's latest video and started planning. I needed to decide whether to do it on a floating raft in the middle of our 35 acre lake or on the edge of a field next to an orange grove. The field won out because it was easier to work with and it was dry ( I only wish it were so, but I'm getting ahead of myself).

Shopping was next. Phantom fireworks has a year round store in Tampa, the people were very helpful (amazing how much help you get when you say you have a $1200 budget!!), and I liked the fact that the store was a real building (95% of the fireworks in Florida are sold out of tents on the side of the road) which means AC shopping and dry (Summer in Florida is hot and wet). They have 8 different 500g cakes(Skywalker bombard -angle shots, Grucci High Performance - great, New Yorker Salute - nice and a great finale piece, Pyrotechnic Motherload - great and our favorite effect, Untamed Retribution - very loud reports, Operation Enduring Freedom, Pryo Pulverizer - powerful big reports, Bada Bing Bada Boom), we got one of each plus a couple of doubles; all are good, but the High Performance by Grucci was great. The Mine Shell Mayhem, by Grucci again, was stunning. We added some medium cakes, swarming sketters -2, Shadadellic Mojo -4, Silver Sonic Warhead - 4 (a mine type, I liked it a lot), Rain of Fire - 4, Triton 's Tempest -4 (nice fish break), Emerald City -4 (nice color, but too small with the other items).

Then some tubes. If the name Grucci is on it then you can count on very good quality. We got two of every Grucci on the advice of the salesman and were not disappointed. Really good stuff. Phantom also carries other brands, the Vulcan #500s were very powerful and really good performers. Also got a manager's special 3 for 1 on a Doomsday floral, a purple thing, more on that later.

And some very large fountains. The New York Harbor was good, over 4 ¸ minutes log, but still a fountain, about 7 feet tall and 8 feet wide. Got 4 at $25 before discount. The Veteran Salute was over quicker, the New York Harbors are better and cheaper. Got 2 at $30 before discount. 

Phantom does the normal two for one thing (two for one + 99˘ if you buy under $400, straight two for one over $400). And they give you spending bonuses. We spent $1050 plus tax. We got a New Yorker assortment -$80 retail (good little stuff), a Grand finally assortment - $100 retail ( a dozen or so medium cakes), and two (one for each $500 spent) Tube assortment - $100 retail (actually a good assortment, a couple #500 one a Grucci , a #300 Grucci , a #200, a couple of #100s, two small Reloadables, and a bunch of little ones. Not a bad group at all). All four packages as a bonus.

It took three shopping carts and a dolly to carry it all out to the SUV. I don't know who was happier, the staff at Phantom or me! 

I recruited my volunteers, three other men and one lucky 15 year old. The plan was not to have anyone near the main fireworks (fountains aside) as they went off. We used green visco fuse to time the whole display. I had two 6' x 8' fence panels to use, they worked out pretty good, mostly. 

On the 4th me any my crew came together in my car port to assemble the evening's show. All the cakes on one panel, all the tubes in another. Plus the fountains on their own wood. And a bucket with Reloadables (Since we were not going to do reloading, but had gotten the reloadables in the assortments we had to do something with them. So we cut some PVC tubes, put them in a large bucket, filled in with sand and gang fused them all together. I know that we should not use PVC for reloaders, but no one would be around the things when they went off, so if they blow up badly no one would be around).

We saved the Grucci High Performance and half of the tubes for the finally. All the rest were spread out for a 25 minute show. We cut our fuse for 25 minutes (plus a delay to get the hell out of the way) and spread all the big cakes thru out the time, then filled in with the medium cakes, some times two of the same together, some times just one all by it's self. About the same on the tubes, we would have two tube go off then wait a couple of minutes then a couple more tubes and so on. We used wood screws to attach the tubes to the fence panel, worked really good. The cake displays and the tube displays were going at the same time. To connect the fuses we would lay the tube/cake's fuse along the main fuse, then wrap with floral wire (it is just thin copper wire painted green, very cheap at Walmart etc) it worked out OK. It took us two hours to fuse everything up. We covered it all with plastic drop clothes to protect it from rain. In Florida, if it's summer you probable will have rain.

We all go home to rest and get ready for the evening. About 6pm it got dark, but not because the sun was going down, rather the rain was coming. It was a typical Florida rain shower, lots of wind, lighting, and about an inch of rain. The fireworks were OK, but it was raining until 8pm. Once it was clear we only had an hour or so to get set up. I have a large wagon to pull behind my golf-cart. The panels with the fireworks were to be delivered to the display are on the wagon, one trip for the cake panel and one for the tube panel.

On my first trip out I with the cake panel pasted by a group of kids playing with sparklers and little stuff. I now know what the guy at the zoo feels like when he brings the lions their meal of meat, you are the center of attention. It's kind of a prey kind of feeling, you know they want what you have, allot. They just kind of stared and drooled. 

I get to the display area, and it's soaked. More than soaked, there is lots of standing water. Going thru large puddles (some 5 inches deep), is very disconcerting when you are delivering fireworks. I deliver the first panel of cakes out to their firing zone, it takes five guys to lift if off the wagon onto some wood put down to keep the fireworks away from the water and wetness. The Fountains go to their spot. And I got home for the tube panel. By the time I'm back it's almost dark. We just park the wagon with the tube panel in it's location and get ready. 

The rain has set all my plans off. I run over to the DJ with my CD of music. Check in with the firemen (with an inch of rain a couple hours earlier they doubted we could set anything on fire if we tried). And with security (The community Board had required that everything be very safe. So all the fireworks were as far away from the audience as the fireworks height plus break), all was good.

It is wet work, the field is half under water and the weather is threatening more rain.



At 9:15 we began.

Fountains: Music: Lee Greenwood - Good bless the USA and Ray C. America the Beautiful.

Fountains	FA - Veterans Salute	2

FB - New York Harbor G	3

This is a nice soft start, it kind of warms up the audience with the patriotic music. Then you can hit them with the big stuff and the rock'n music.



At 9:20 the main show began, NOT.

The DJ waited, and everyone waited. Finally after three minutes the first item kicks in. The DJ starts the main music and we are on! Everything is working!!

Key G = Grucci, V = Vulcan, p = Phantom

Id name
#	time	music

CI Mineshell Mayhem G	1	0
John Tesh:

CA Skywalker	500g	1	1
Shock

CP 61s bee hive	1	1-2

CQ 36s barrage
1	1-2

CR 61s whistle whirl
1	1-2

TS Blue carnation	4	2.5

TK Golden willow	G	1	3

TO Yellow starburst	-	1	3

CC New York Salute	500g	1	4
Mars Lasar:

TS Blue carnation	3	4.5
Mt. Olympus

TG Brocade silver	G	1	5.5

TH Park Ave Peony	G	1	5.5

CF Bada Bing Bada Bang	500g	1
7

CJ Swarming Skeeters	2
7.5, 7.5	John Tesh:

CN Triton's Tempest	1	8
Thousand summers

TO Yellow starburst	-	1	8

TL Golden willow brocade	G	1	8.

CO Emerald City	1	8.5



Ten minutes in and so far so good. Pace is a bit slow, but the audience is eating it up.



CE Untamed Retribution 500g	1	10

CK Shadadellic Mojo	2
10.5, 10.5

CN Triton's Tempest	1	11.5
David Arkenstone:

TD Silver Crackle	G	2	11.5, 11.5
Rendezvous

CL Silver sonic Warhead	2	12, 12

CO Emerald City	2	12.5, 12.5,

CA Skywalker	500g	1	13

CM Rain of fire	1	13.5

CD Pryo Mother Load 500g	1
14

TI Gold Glitter	G	1	14.5

TN Silver Green	G	1	14.5



Disaster. At almost the same time both main fuses go out. We wait, but nothing. We go in (slogging thru water half the way there and back) and restart the cake panel. The DJ kicks the music back in, he restarts from the top of the main music (next year have a Walkie talkie to let DJ know what is going on and have each piece of music separate rather than bunched together. But hey, we got thru it). We are rolling. 



CG Operation enduring freedom500g 1	17
Yanni:

CK Shadadellic Mojo	2	17.5, 17.5
Marching Season

TE Red Wave	p	1	17.5 moved to
after cakes

TF Blue Wave	p	1	17.5 moved to
after cakes

CI Mineshell Mayhem G	1
18.5	Gladiator:

CH Pryo pulverize	500g	1
19.5	Gladiator waltz

CN Triton's Tempest	1	19.5
to end of Finally

TP Magic Barrage	-	5	20ish, break in
mid

TQ Wolf pack 6 reloader	5	20ish, break in
mid

TM Crown brocade	G	1	20.5

TI Gold Glitter	G	1	20.5

CL Silver sonic Warhead	1	21

CL Silver sonic Warhead	1	21.5



The cakes roll into the finally. I can not say enough good thing about these Grucci High Performance cakes.	The Silver Sonics are a
nice set off to the big stuff.



Finally items	CB High Performance 500g G	1
22

CB High Performance 500g G	1
22

CM Rain of fire	1	23



We then lit our remaining tubes.



TA Brocade w/silver	5	V	1	f

TC Round Red Dahlia 5	G	1	f

TD Silver Crackle	5	G	2	f, f

TE Red Wave	5	p	1	f

TF Blue Wave	4	p	1	f

TG Brocade silver	3	G	1	f

TH Park Ave Peony	3	G	1	f

TI Gold Glitter	3	G	1	f

TI Gold Glitter	3	G	1	f

TJ Doomsday purple	3	-	2	f, f,

TK Golden willow	2	G	1	f

TL Golden willow brocade2	G	1	f

TM Crown brocade 2	G	1	f

TN Silver Green	2	G	1	f

TQ Wolf pack 6 reloader1	5	f

TR Festival 6 reloader1	18	f

Rockets	10
f

TB Red White Blue	5	V	2	At end
of f.



There were a few low breaks and few none starts. Only one item burned but did not go off. The two items that did not even start we lighted by hand. 

The last item was a Doomsday floral tube, a #300. The fuse just did not take. So I light it and cleared out with the idea of not locking back. GOOD idea. That sucker broke low, rather than going up to 200 feet and exploding 
it went 20 feet and exploded, with me 30 feet away! Being close to a low break is really bad Juju! When you hear that shell bread too damn early and see the effect pass you are running away all you can do is say to your self DON'T LOOK BACK! Until it's over. The lesson here, Don't buy three for one specials. Get the good stuff, be happy, be safe. 

The aftermath. The ground for 50 feet in all directions is littered with cardboard tubes, cones, circles, and assorted bits of fireworks. 

The show lasted from 9:15 to 10:15. But the crowd loved it. They were fine with the slower than professional pace (All the professional shows were always, fire it all in 10 - 15 minutes and go home). They were very tolerant of the delays as we restarted the show. We got lots of great reviews. The only negative review came from some drunk guy who said he could do bigger and better, well bigger is commercial (and a drunk person + commercial fireworks = me running for cover), and better I'll leave up to my audience to decide.

2004. After the overwhelmingly positive response to they year's show there is already a fund set up for next year (and it's only July 6th), and it already has several hundred dollars in it. You just have to love people who want to give you hundreds of dollars to fire off fireworks. It may be a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Improvements for next year.

Go electric; Electric matches etc. I don't know how much it would cost to get a basic set up, but it would be worth it to be able to remotely start portions of the display.

Base; The fence panels were OK, but a couple of the #500 tubes actually broke the panels they were attached to. Next year we will attach at heavy panel/deck to the top of the wagon and a small trailer, that way we can just drive the displays out to their spots at the last moment. 

Music; Individual cuts rather than one large one. This year I edited 6 pieces of music for the main show of 25 minutes and created one big piece of music . Next year it will be 6 separate edited cuts. 

Fuses; The one thing that mucked things up most was the fuse failure. Next time I may double fuse. Two fuses together or in parallel with crossovers. This year we spent only $18 on fuses. Another $18 would be cheap insurance. 

Tubes; Tubes are great, but the large cake are all but equal to them. One effect in particular in the Pryo Mother Load was perhaps better than even the best tube (a group of tubes fire, they have a nice break, then each breaks into a little gold ball. Imagine 60+ five foot gold balls all going off at once, it was like half the sky was turned on. Awesome, totally awesome. And the cake does this three times, along with other stuff.) I would go with more of the big 500gram cakes and grouped medium cakes. Maybe reserve a large group of tubes for just the finally. 

Reloadables: The person that has to plan everything wants nothing to do with reloadables, but the budget minded person is interested because they are money savers. I don't know if I would want to set all the needed tubes up, but we will see.

Cakes; I loved all the 500g Phantom cakes. And most of the medium ones were good as well (more of the silver sonics, triton's tempests, and Mineshell mayhem; leave off the rain of fire, emerald city, and smaller stuff). That said it is my suspicion that almost all the big Phantom cakes are almost the same as one of the Brothers ones, with the exception of the Grucci High Performance. In the end if you have 500grams of powder you are going to get something good.

Maybe I'll branch out to do a Brothers set. We will have to see what the budget is.

Other; I would really like to see a BIG fountain. Several years ago I was in Switzerland on their union day (the day they all banded together and said "We are the Swiss, Ja!"), they had a huge fountain, sucker must have been a 1000gram, put out a tower of sparks nearly fifteen feet high, and lasted a couple minutes. That and a really big wheel. 

That's my fireworks story for 2003. Then again there is new years.. 

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Yo yo!! It's the Staten Island pyro again, bringing you yet another entertaining Fourth of July story. This time, our fourth was a bit more complicated. You see, a year or so ago I got caught hacking into a computer system and was sentenced to two years probation. That means that committing any other crimes is a no-no. I knew that sooner or later, with my luck I was bound to get into some sort of trouble, and of course I did.
On June 26th, me and two other kids, Bob and Phil, went to the woods to light some little stuff. I brought a few mini plane-flying-at-nights, a pack of bottle rockets, and a few pieces of fuse that, when lit, would fly around in a random path much like a bottle rocket without a stick. We lit a few bottle rockets, sending them flying into the water where they would explode with a barely audible pop, lighting up the entire body of water (lake, pond, or whatever it was). Then we lit two of the little planes. One did the usual "ZOOP!", and flew up like it should. The second one, however, didn't quite perform as intended. It flew up about 10ft.; and then exploded with a report comparable to that of a small flash salute. Bob, the cowardly one, ran for the exit-path while me and Phil stood there waiting for him to come back like he usually does. After about 30 seconds, Phil says "Something's wrong, he usually doesn't take this long". All of a sudden I hear footsteps, and in comes Bob. The first thing he says is "Joe, You're in biiig trouble". It sounded like he was joking around like usual, but then I saw two more guys enter from the same path. For some reason I thought they were just other kids who usually go around the woods smoking pot. Then I noticed two flash lights. I quickly scrambled to toss the fireworks; I couldn't get the bottle rockets out in time, but I tossed some of my bigger stuff into the water before they were able to see me. I was about to jump off the dock and into the water to escape, but I decided that it would be useless to run as they already had Bob. (He would easily fall for their bull and rat me out after some of their factitious threats) I tried once again to get the bottle rockets out but before I could pull them out, the pig grabbed my arm, and did the standard "grab and trip" maneuver. I ended up with the son of a bitch's knee on my throat. I thought briefly about grabbing his gun and blowing his brains out, but my sanity returned and I submitted to the walking piece of rubbish. I should have at least punched the scumbag in the throat, after all he never said he was a cop. Sorry about all the anti-cop insults. I know there are good cops out there, but this incident just about did it for me. 9/11 or not, I pretty much lost all respect for law enforcement. Anyway.. now the.. hmm.. let's see, what else can I call a cop besides a pig? AHA! Now the authority-abusing fat assed donut hog halitosis patient caffeine addict piece of crap decided to pull his mace out. "Don't fight back or we'll have tah mace ya" The human turd says. I didn't struggle one bit, why would such a weak piece of crap even become a cop? Then they ask us for ID. I didn't have any, so these morons decided to leave me handcuffed inside their car for about 45 minutes, without reading me my rights or anything. They check my ID on their computer, verify it with my friends, and write us summonses. I got three, Bob and Phil got two. They told me if I hadn't "spazzed out" they would have given me two.So here I am, with a summons for "Fireworks Discharge", "Trespassing on a NYC park (closed at dusk)" and "Loitering for illegal purposes" because I "spazzed out". The extra charge (the loitering one) won't hold anyway since you are only guilty of it if you are doing drugs or soliciting prostitution. If you think that's retarded, then prepare to be REALLY alienated. First off, you can hardly read their handwriting to begin with. Then there's a little mistake with the court date: August 16th 2003. Court does not operate on Saturdays over here. Now here comes their ultimate act of stupidity: are 
you ready for this??? Phil never signed any of the summonses. WOW.. and I thought the mentally handicapped were excluded from the police program. A bunch of people are telling me that they actually made those mistakes on purpose, indicating that they just wrote us the summonses to scare us. I doubt this is the case. These heartless bastards demonstrated a serious lack of a life. I mean come on!! Were they ever kids?? OK, whatever, that's enough ranting for today. I'll move onto the fourth now. No more. I'm done. I promise.
With the Fourth of July fast approaching, me and my crew rushed to complete our strategy of having a safe and free fourth. I ordered a police scanner, but it would not arrive until well after the fourth. Fortunately, we found one online at http://www.silive.com. This thing would prove very useful later on. Listen to it, maybe you'll hear me getting busted again. Anyway, the fun all started July 1st, as I rushed to sell off most of my remaining stash. Within 2 hours, I sold about $15 worth of fireworks for about $90 to a bunch of 14 year-olds I know. I was hesitant to sell to them at first because if they got caught, the first thing they would be asked is "Do you know anybody who sells?". These kids didn't know the cops' dirty tricks, and would rat on my in heartbeat instead of simply telling them "Santa gave it to me" as I did. In order to keep the kids from giving me away, I gave them a little "incentive" to keep their mouth shut. Not only did I make them sign a hold-harmless agreement, but I also told them that Phil was in the mob and would kill them and their entire family if they gave us away. Yes, I know the agreement is useless because they are minors, but what hell. They didn't know what ;-p. The "deal" didn't go as smoothly as I wanted it to however. We sold our stuff out of Phil's van, so we tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. Of course, as soon as we drove up to the kid's house, we were greeted by about 8 kids screaming at the tops of their lungs. We drove away as quickly as possible, and I screamed at the kid to get his friends away. After all the commotion settled, we ended up selling to two of the older kids. I actually sold a gross of bottle rockets for $20, and a pack of mini planes for  $5 each. After the deal went down, we sped off to an unspecified location where we stored the rest of the fireworks. This way if the cops decided to bust my door down, they would find nothing. Later the next day, I got in touch with my friend Ed who told us that some Russian Mafioso kid would buy everything I could sell. So off we went to Ed's house with the fireworks. At first he bought two boxes of titanium salutes for $30 a pop. Then, the day after on July 3rd, he bought about 2/3 of everything I had left. I made about $160 in those two deals.
	I decided to sleep over Ed's house that night. On the fourth we decided we would first go to his rich aunt's BBQ, then return to my house to shoot off our stuff. We agreed not to do any fireworks that night, no matter how tempting it was. Of course as the night wore on, we decided ‘what the hell' and planned out a mini-show. At 12:00AM, July 4th, we shot off a #300 Rain Willow. I gotta tell ya this thing was SICK, it was the highest flying Class C shell I've seen to date, and the break was massive. It wasn't really a willow though, more like a golden spider with color tips. Jake, a friend of ours, must have heard it or seen it as he quickly showed up at our doorstep. We heard lots of other fireworks going off around us, so we decided to continue. We put his brother to work listening to the police scanner, and grabbed some bigger rockets. A Samurai Hunter and a Tulip were next to go. The Samurai was OK, but the tulip was awesome. Ironically it was half the size of the former and half the price. We went back in listened to the scanner for a little, and then all of a sudden we heard  BOOOOM. The ground shook and car alarms went off everywhere. We were halfway done with commenting on how stupid it was to light off a half stick at midnight when all of a sudden Ed's phone rang. It was the Mafioso kid, he was asking us if we had anymore titanium salutes. Yup, that BOOM was just a titanium salute. I had no idea they were that loud when you're not expecting it. Anyway I decided to sell him a single salute plus some bottle rockets and stuff for $5, just to get rid of it.
We went over to his house, and I just dumped all the stuff out in his living room. Just before I left I heard another BOOM and more car alarms going off. I ran out and saw the kid and 20 of his friends laughing hysterically. Me, Ed, and Jake promptly ran back to Ed's house where we were greeted by his brother who announced that somebody called the cops on the Mafioso kid. He said he heard "the word fireworks and the street on which the kid lives on" come up several times. I understand why someone would call the cops on him, but in my opinion he was not the person to call the cops on. Thankfully for everyone, no cops showed up that night. Jake went home and everyone went to sleep.
	I awoke the next day at around 11:00AM; Ed was still sleeping, tired from his landscaping work of the previous day. I used this opportunity to consolidate all the remaining fireworks into one tote. You see, I started out with two large plastic totes and a cardboard box loaded with $300 worth of fireworks. After all the selling, I was left with about half a tote of fireworks worth somewhere between $100-25. I don't think I made much profit because I gave most of the stuff away at the same price at which I bought it. I couldn't rip off the mafia kids because unlike the 14 year olds they knew how much the stuff was really worth. Before packing the remaining fireworks into the tote, I took note of what I had:

1  gross of bottle rockets
1  gross of triple whistlers
6 tulips
2 samurai hunters
14 rambo kid shells
10 titanium salutes
7 critical acclaim shells
1 hot & wild roman candle
1,000 strip of roller coaster firecrackers
1 quarter stick
2 packs of small plane flying at night
1 pack of sunflowers
1 pack of air bomber planes
3 space cadet rockets
1 willows cake
1 daffodil cake
3 strings of jumping jacks
15 or so screaming crackelers

	Ed finally wakes up at noon, and we begin packing away all the stuff for his aunt's house. At first, his mom was a bit hesitant about put the fireworks into the trunk, thinking they will explode from the heat. After I convinced her that there is nothing to worry about, we loaded up the fireworks hit the road. After about an hour or so in the pool, we began to sink into boredom. Even though we were almost certain that we would not be allowed to light anything off there, we asked anyway. Surprisingly, one of the adults there said it would be OK as long as he watched us. I got some little stuff like bottle rockets and firecrackers and we began lighting them off until we ran out. I was about to go to the trunk to get more, when all of a sudden I saw a black Mercury Grand Marquis (a commonly used detective car). I quickly shut the trunk and ran away. As it turns out, the people in the car were not hostiles. I went back to open the trunk when Ed informs that he put the keys in the trunk. After reprimanding him, we told his mom the bad news and she drove off in another car to get her spare key. About 30 minutes later, she returned and the festivities continued. Me and Ed took turns blowing up coke cans with bottle rockets, the local children found this very entertaining. We went through about 6 packs of bottle rockets and 5 packs of whistlers, plus about 50 firecrackers before we decided to move onto bigger stuff. We did a few screaming crackelers and decided to do a titanium salute for the finale. Ed's mom's boyfriend warned everyone out back to prepare for the loudest boom they ever heard. When all was ready, I lit the fuse and ran back. The shell shot up about 200ft before exploding with a thunderous BOOM. We quickly jumped in the car and drove over to my house.
	Me and Ed decided we would hide the firework tote behind my bushes and only take a few fireworks at a time when we went out to light them off. We ended up lighting off our stuff on my friend Nathan's block; one of his neighbors was a cop and would cover us if the "authorities" decided to try and bust us. Ed and I took a walk over to the local deli to get some drinks, and of course survey the amount of "cover" we had (i.e. amount of fireworks going off around us). It wasn't fully dark yet so we didn't see much aerial stuff, but we heard firecrackers going off all around us. We bought our drinks and off we went to Nat's house with some tulips and screaming cracklers. When we got there, Alex, a rather sadistic friend of ours was shooting bottle rockets out of a plastic pipe. He found it amazing, apparently because the way he loaded and fired it resembled how a bazooka operates. I was getting pissed off because I could not find a suitable rocket holder; Alex's pipe got blown up when the idiot lit a rocket off inside of it. After much searching, I decided to use my old time-tested technique: light the rockets out of the holes in a manhole. A few nice screaming cracklers went up, followed by some tulips and space cadets. I called my friend Pat, and he decided to drive by and join us. I was counting on using his car to transport fireworks from my house to Nat's block, but he had no gas in his car. Oh well. I had my camera out the whole time, but Ed was holding it for me and I didn't really trust him to film cause he really sucks with cameras, but I was busy lighting stuff the whole time, so I had no choice but to eventually let him film. He got some of the fireworks good, but he also screwed up on a lot of them. His extremely annoying comments didn't help either. As for the action, there really wasn't anything special going on, so I'm going to keep this brief.
	After most of the rockets were used, we decided to move on to the mortars and cakes. We did mortars, one after another out of two tubes. Once in a while we threw in a tulip. In my opinion theese were almost as good as the Rambo kid shells. The breaks on the Rambo kids were nice and large, but they didn't go high at all. The critical acclaim shells were really good, especially the "whistling fish with report" ones. All the cakes were great too, especially "willows". Daffodil was nice too, but the breaks weren't as big.
	Just as we were on our last 5 shells, some scumbag who said he was a cop decides to yell at us. According to him, he told us before to leave and shoot somewhere else. Actually, he did tell us not to aim rockets at his house because a tulip landed in his yard. We honored his request and not one thing hit house from that moment on. He was actually nice about it the first time. I don't know what was up that guy's ass when he decided to flip out on us. Well, anyway, the fourth wrapped up without any real injury or property damage, although there were plenty of humorous incidents and misfires. The funniest thing of the day was watching Alex attempting to light bottle rockets. It took him about 5 minutes to light the damn things. He only touched the flame of his lighter to the fuse for a split second before pulling it away. Strangely enough, almost all his rockets misfired even with all his paranoia. Nat also had some pretty damn funny misfires. His dad lit a screaming crackeler which made an aerial 90 degree turn and flew into someone's siding. No damage was done. Nat lit an air bomber with no wings which went flying at someone's car. The whole car was showered with sparks, scaring everyone inside. Again no damage was done. Later that night, Bob and his brother showed up. We were doing some mortars and bottle rockets to entertain a few spectators around my block when my dad came home and forced me to go in. Ed was sleeping over my house that day, so we decided that we would go out again at 2:00AM to look for duds. Much to our dismay, we didn't find much. We found plenty of debris, but only a few usable duds. I guess fireworks are getting more and more reliable nowadays. We ended up finding a bottle rocket and a wheel. I took the drivers off the wheel and lit them one by one. They jetted about the ground like little bottle rockets. When we lit the bottle rocket, it flew towards some neighborhood cop-wannabe guy's house so we just ran. Me and Ed got some food at the deli, walked back to my house, and went to sleep.
	Well, that's about it for this Fourth of July. I did some more of my fireworks later, on July 6th at Ed's dad's house. I lit the quarter stick a week later. I Just threw it out of my friend's car into the woods. It was a little louder than the titanium salutes. I have tons of flash powder chemicals and all sorts of tubes, but I decided I would save the stuff in another secret location until my upcoming vacation in North or South Carolina. No, I didn't sell any of it.


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Been a while since I've sent you an e-mail. Anyway, about this past 4th... Well, I was stuck out here at the house, didn't go anywhere, rained whole week. Today is my birthday, and rained half the day, I turned 21 today... But anyway, since I'm in GA, I was planning on going to Florida for fireworks, but that didn't happen, plus with all the weather they had, that wouldn't have helped anyway. I hope, and sure, that you had a good 4th though. 

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My Fourth of July was great, considering some adversity I faced!!! I usually go all-out and spend about $500-$700 and buy my fireworks at least 2 weeks before the 4th, unfortunately, due to financial constraints, I was on a $300 budget and purchased my fireworks 2 days before. I utilized "Fireworks A-Z" and Bob Weaver's Pyro Video volumes 1-3 as resources for product to purchase. I developed a two-page list of all the items I liked (about 70 items). I listed the item name, the maker, and what the item did, i.e. strobbing stars, comets, fan-shaped effects, etc, which are my favorites. Of course, I could not purchase 70 items, but the list helped me develop a show that created a contrast of effects with various colors. I was very organized in terms of product, but should have worked more on logistics. I will travel up to 7 hours for a reputable dealer with good product quality and variety, but would recommend confirmation that the dealer exists, before driving. Case in point, I drove over 500 miles round-trip for a dealer that is no longer in business. After driving around, I then decided to find a dealer that was closer to me. The first dealer was great. It's kind of like a "Mom and Pop|" shop. They no me by name, recommend items, give you a refund if you don't like the item they recommend, have a vast knowledge of all the items in the store, give great deals, and get this, they even light items outside ot the store so you can see the item before you buy it. They didn't have many of the items on my list, but they did show me an awesome mortar shell that I bought. The box says "Small Display Ball" (1.75/Noisy). It's in a blue box (of 12) I believe, and made in China. I was impressed, not much of a looker, but that had to be the loudest "non-professional" report I've ever heard. I then went to the next dealer. Totally opposite experience. Fireworks was just a business, not a lifestyle. Huge variety of product, but employees had no product knowledge and no passion. I asked about various items and they were clueless. I then showed them my "Fireworks A-Z Buyer's Guide." They were impressed, but looked at me as if I was some "freak." Well, if being one who loves, appreciates fireworks, wants a great deal, doesn't want to buy inferior product, seeks additional knowledge of the industry, and likes being around others that feel the same way makes me a "freak" then so be it. Coincidently, I found many of the items from my list from there. Thank goodness I did my research, because if I left it up to them, I may have wasted money. But overall, that experience was still enjoyable. Here it is 2 in the morning, and I'm buying fireworks. Many dealers are open 24 hours the week of the 4th, so timing was perfect, and I wasn't the only one there. 

Well anyway, I didn't prepare the display until 2pm on the 4th. As a preliminary show, I used an unknown maker variety pack display shells (12), 9 of the Small Festival Balls, Splash (fountain), Strobbing Palms, Super Stallion, and Electric Raibow (fountain). I mixed the cakes, single tube shells and the fountains so that you didn't get too bored of anything. On my 4 X 6 wood board I glued items to the board. Using 2 packages of fuse, I connected my cakes, by twisting the fuses with the cake wicks and then taping them securely with masking tape. I glued two of each of the following items: Knights Armor, Hometown Favorite, Blazing Comets, Iron Beast, 300 shot Saturn Missile Battery, Hero's Welcome, Road Rage, 3 Small Display Shell (connected together in a single tube), Rain Forest, 90 Shot Color Pearl Floral, Panorama, and Red, White & Blue Salute. (Before I continue, I must admit that connecting the balls in a tube is not recommended, nor myself, it just worked out for me). I had about 20-25 chair sitters, mostly family. Everyone clapped and cheered. They loved the entire finale. But, they also loved the load Small Festival Ball (1.75), and the no-name variety pack single display shells. I thought it was pretty good, but my goggles started getting foggy towards the end and things started looking blurry. Fortunately, my brother in law recorded for me on videotape, so we'll see. A lot of people in my community had fireworks and good stuff too, you could see from a distance. Funny, one of my neighbors approached me the next day and told me that my show was great. He said he spent $1200, but his show was not nearly as good as mine. I tell you with $1200, I'd make the most jaded pyros teary-eyed. At least I'd try. Lessons learned. Keep a flashlight if you're lighting items yourself, compared to using professional lighting system. I'll make sure to not forget "100 Yellow Ribbons," next year, one of my favorites. Too bad "The Great Emperor" is no longer a consumer item. Wow! I'll also try to incorporate more palm-tree and flashing effects for the finale. In addition, keep tubes for next year if possible....They may come in handy. Sorry it's so long. 


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I usually start preparing for the 4th in March or April. Last year (2002) I purchased most of our fireworks online. It worked out well. The prices were much better, especially when purchased by the case! I found a reputable dealer from a link from one of my favorite fireworks websites (this one) that would ship direct to my home state of Oregon where all aerial fireworks are banned!

This year, however, I was not able to secure funding for our show. Blame it on the economy! Our first child was born last September and the strain on our budget did not leave much room for fireworks. At least not in May. I am self-employed and business has been slow the first 5 months of the year. June was a very good month and I quickly realized that it was going to be a glorious 4th yet again! I went online and started to put together my dream order. It was bigger and badder then last years! It was mid-June when I called my dealer to confirm that they still had the items that I wanted in stock. I was very disappointed to hear that more than half of the items on my list were completely sold out! No online order this year! It just shows that people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. 



On to plan B.



We live in Portland, Oregon where again, they don't allow anything that flies in the air or goes bang. But our fair city borders the great state of Washington where all consumer fireworks are legal with the exception of rockets on a stick and firecrackers. Our family was planning a get-together in Coeur d'Alene Idaho where my grandma lives. She has a house about one block from one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, lake Coeur d'Alene! Anyway, my first stop was in Vancouver, Washington to load up on goodies. They had some good deals this year! Dragon Artillery shells were buy one get 3 free. Which came out to $5 a box. Not bad. I also got a great deal on Roman Candles! I got 10 shot Black Cat Banger candles. The reports were good and loud on these bad boys! I got 12 4 packs. I got a ton of small, medium, and large airplanes and aerial spinners. I don't think I've had this much little stuff since I was a kid. I wanted so much to go crazy and start buying the large 500-gram cakes by the truckload but they were selling them for upwards of $60 apiece! Once you buy wholesale, you can never go back to retail. I exercised more restraint walking out of there when I did then I ever thought possible. I made a few more stops at some of my favorite tents and stands to see if there were more good deals to be found picking up other miscellaneous items here and there. I was looking for some metal sparklers with which to make sparkler bombs. I haven't been able to find "good" sparklers for 2 years now. I think that manufacturers have succumbed to pressure from the powers that be to make a safer, metal sparkler that doesn't contain the compounds necessary for explosive combustion. I bought three different brands of metal sparklers from three different locations to see if I could stumble on a batch of usable sparklers. No luck. All three yielded the same result, alot of flame, no bang. Oh well.

From Vancouver we began our journey east towards Idaho. Incidentally, Idaho 
has the same restrictions on aerial fireworks that Oregon has, but that never stops us! We made a stop in Toppenish Washington, which is near Yakima. The Toppenish Indian reservation is a place that I've always wanted to go to but have never visited. I wanted to score some large rockets and see if some of the natives had any 1.3g items for sale. I found some large rockets called Lucky Space rockets for a reasonable price. I purchased a pack of 4. I asked every stand if they had any "bombs" and each time they asked me the same question: are you a cop or affiliated with any law enforcement agency? It made me feel like I was buying drugs. One guy was peddling tennis ball bombs. He showed me one and told me how some guy bought one, lit it, and threw it out his front door not thinking too much about it. When it went off it blew out his front room window. He wanted $40 for one bomb. $40!! Knowing just the little bit that I do about pyro, I know that it can't cost more than $2 or $3, tennis ball included, to make that thing. I passed. I got some bottle rockets and we moved on. 



We arrived late that evening in Coeur d'Alene and got some rest. Traveling across 2 states with a 9 month old baby is exhausting. The next morning I woke to one of the most beautiful mornings in memory. It is historically rainy on the 4th of July here in the Pacific Northwest. After breakfast our family headed down to main street to see the annual parade. We drank lemonade and ate hotdogs. This parade had more fire trucks and fireman than I've ever seen! Kind of made me nervous knowing the show that we had in store for that evening. We got back to the house and my little brothers and I got in the car to head to the Coeur d'Alene Indian reservation located about 20 minutes south of town. It was about 3 in the afternoon and I wasn' t anticipating a very good selection of items left on the shelves. We arrived at the first stand and they were closed. This was very odd. As we were driving up they were boarding up the stand. We could see that they still had plenty of inventory on the shelves. Maybe they had celebration plans of their own. Maybe they had made enough money and wanted to blow off the rest of their inventory in one big show. Oh well. Then next stand was packed. I got some firecrackers and we moved on. Too many people. The next place we stopped had competing stands on either side of the road. One dealer had very little stock left. Just some 500 gram cakes that he was trying to sell for $90 + ! Geez! We went across the street and I found a new item that I had not seen before. It was called the Extreme Warhead Launcher. I've had warhead launchers before but nothing like this. It came with 4 warheads and its launching pad. The launcher was simply a piece of wood about 4" by 4" with a nail in the center of it. Each warhead was about 5" tall with a small hole in the bottom. I was very excited to see these little sweethearts in action! Our next stop was a stand in a small town just past the local Indian casino. I asked if he had anything loud. He pulled an item from behind the counter and set it in front of me. I couldn' t believe my luck! It was a 25 shot Strobing Thunder! It had a plain brown paper exterior with a white label that included the words "for professional use only". I quickly paid the man and we took off to the next stop. The next place on the rez was a little stand called -------, well I won't mention the name here. These guys are known to have some big bangs for sale from time to time. We got some rockets, Black Cat three bangers, Black Cat butterfly rockets, and I again asked if they had anything loud. Very nonchalantly she said that they had M-1000's. I thought that she must have been referring to the M-1000 brand tube firecrackers, not the real thing. When she reached for something from behind the counter my heart skipped a beat. Out comes a large, silver cylinder roughly half the size of a toilet paper roll. It had a long 3-inch green visco fuse sticking from its top. And I couldn't believe the price!! I should have got 2. At this point I knew that though our show was small, it would be powerful!! Having broken enough laws for one day, we headed for home. 



When we got home, I got to work. The first thing I did was to prepare my roman candle cake. Last year I used 30 candles, this year I used 40. Its simple to make, I take 40 roman candles and carefully bundle them together with tape taking great care to keep all of them even. Then, I have to connect a 2 or 3 inch length of visco or cannon fuse to each roman candle. I usually just cut small strips of electricians tape and secure the 2 fuses together. I arranged 8 fuses into one bundle, which I then tape together. This leaves me with 5 fuse bundles of 8 fuses each. I then carefully join all 5 fuse bundles together and tape them together. Finally, I stick a couple of long pieces of visco into the fuse bundle and call it good with a little more tape. The whole process takes about an hour. I also got a box of piccolo petes this year. I took one of my large lucky space rockets and pried open the top. There is a ton of room in there that is not being used. I learned that the compounds in piccolo petes whistle when tightly compacted, but when the contents are crushed into a loose powder it burns instantly. We took the contents of 3 piccolos and ground the compound into a fine powder. The powder was then dumped into the top of the rocket. By this time it was getting dark.

After dinner I set up my rocket launcher tubes in the front yard. In years past I've had many more rockets than I did this year, but since this was a residential neighborhood, I limited my rocket launching to just a few. 

At about 9:30 we headed down to the lake. I brought my camcorder and I wanted to get it set up for the fireworks over the lake. The fireworks started at about 10 and lasted for about 25 minutes. Very nice show this year. All the breaks were huge and powerful. After the show we headed back to the house. I backed my car up onto the lawn and kept my stash in the trunk in case we were visited by the "law". The show was fun! It brought me back to my childhood of lighting lots of little stuff. I had lots of unpredictable little aerial spinners that did unexpected things. The Surface to Air Missle by Black Cat was awesome. I had some large sunflowers that just blew up like M-80s. Last year I had some Interceptors by Brothers that did the same thing. I had more Interceptors this year and they were great. I had a small item called "00 Buck". It was shaped like a large shotgun shell. It shot twice with each shot going about 20 feet into the air with a dozen or so very loud firecracker reports. Very cool!! I had 4 100 shot Saturn Missile batteries that we did at the same time. They lasted quite awhile. We did Dragon Artillery shells 4 at a time. The loaded rocket went really well, good boom! The roman candle cake was awesome! 400 shots as high as 80 feet in about 25 seconds! Good reports on those candles! The extreme warheads were really good! I highly recommend these if you can find them! They start by spinning on the base for about a half second with a loud buzzing sound and then just fly off that base with the same buzzing intensity to a towering 150 feet or higher before ending in a huge purple break with white stars!!! Awesome!! Then it was time for Strobing Thunder! I told everyone that it was a secret surprise and that I didn't know what it would do. We fired it up and the first shot popped up to about 65 or 70 feet. The lift charge sounded really wimpy and for about 2 seconds I wondered if I had been had. Then first shot went BOOM!! The crowd shrieked and screamed in shock! One after another, 25 times, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM,.. The flash from the explosions tripped the sensors on the streetlights and tricked them into thinking it was daytime and shutting themselves down. By the time it was over the crowd that had gathered was cheering and screaming. Then it was time for the tube salute. I ordered everyone back who was in a 100 ft. radius. I fired the fuse and ran away. It seemed like that fuse burned forever........... ..BOOOOM!!!!!!!!..... People gasped and screamed. Most of these people had never witnessed the power of a legitimate tube salute before. All were impressed with the show this year. Not a bad fireworks show for a budget the ended up being less than $150. And we got it all on tape.

As for the cops, they did what they should always do; they let an American family safely and responsibly celebrate our great nation's independence without interference. God Bless America!!!! Just wait until next year! We have some very big, big plans for 04'! Thanks Bob for putting together and maintaining a great online resource for consumer fireworks enthusiasts!! Keep up the good work!


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Hope everyone had a great 4th . last year on the 5th of July I went out and bought half my fireworks for 50 to75% off . the other part of my display came from victory fireworks which I ordered online . back in march I ordered 100 hdpe 1 ˛ä tubes with 3ä wood plugs pressed into the bottom . I used these to make my racks . 1 48 count rack , 1 33 count angled rack and 1 18 count angled rack .my list of fireworks is long so I wont list them but will tell you some of my favorites . cakes- city crasher , pyre pandemonium ö super crashing rainbow ö 4th of July spectacular ö wild stallion ö shagadellic mojo ö 100 yellow ribbons . mortar kits ö critical acclaim ö Rambo kid ö pyre king . 500 gram cakes ö landmarks ö freedom rocks ö pyre overdrive ö baby boomers . roman candles ö bazooka ö crazy aces . in all I had 175 cakes , 12 500 gram cakes , 240 mortars , 32000 firecrackers , 40 roman candles , 24 samuri hunters , 14 fountains , assorted helicopters , 28 sticks of dyno-mightymite . the night before I glued all of my cakes down to my firing boards with liquid nails so they would have time to dry . the morning of the 4th my brother came over and we went up the street where the display was going to be and removed the fuses from the streetlights , most people donât know how easy this is and makes a huge difference . just remove the panel on the bottom and remove the fuse . during the day we did the firecrackers , and the cannons off , this is my favorite . we had a total of 7 cannons , these things are loud . loads range from 1/3 to 3/4 a cup of pyrodex per load , fuse powder toilet paper and your good to go . we had about 60 people over to our house and there was probably 75 to a 100 neighbors . the show turned out perfect , there was no low breaks ,no fires (although we were prepared for it ) , an no injuries . I always wear safety glasses , use a push button torch , and use the utmost care in my displays . safety is the most important thing .SAFETY , SAFETY , SAFETY . if we all are then we will be able to enjoy fireworks and ensure our kids and future generations are able to as well . as always I would like to thank bob for all his work he puts in .


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Well, this was one awesome 4th of July! We had a group of about 40 people at my house and most of the neighbors had parties or had family and friends over for my show. We had a blast and the show was spectacular. We did something a little different this year. Almost every cake that was fired was fired in groups of two or three of the same cakes. That made for a wonderful show throughout the night. I fused the groups of three cakes so that the two outside cakes would light up about half way through the middle cake. It was intense and made for a longer lasting display. I had each board about 30 feet apart so that it wasn't clutterred together.We were constantly lighting standard cakes in groups of three and 500g cakes in groups of two from 9:30pm-12:15am. I also set up an opener for my show this year. I fused together 26 shells, several standard cakes, and a couple 500g cakes to open the show. The shells were doubles, triples, canisters, and a few Noisy Shell salutes and Thundering King salutes. Everyone was impressed and this let the neighborhood know what was coming in the next few hours. 

I started this year out just like last year. I did a lot of searching on the net. I was bound and determined to find a wholesaler this year. I found a couple online wholesalers and was close to ordering from one of them when I finally found a wholesaler that was within driving distance. I decided to purchase from Mike Killian's Wholesale Fireworks. I was amazed at the prices! His 500g cakes are only $12.00-$16.00 each. His standard cakes are really cheap too. For example, his 19-shot Black Cat cakes are all $6.13 each. Unbelievable! I had intended on buying cases of standard cakes for my finale, but I couldn't resist buying the 500g cakes by the case. I purchased 8 cases of 500g cakes and several dozen standard cakes from him. I also bought several shell kits from him. 

I built a new mortar board for my finale in June. It contains 32 14" tubes. It worked great and added a lot to the finale. 

I found a new retailer that has some great retail prices. He also buys from Mike Killian's, but he buys from 3 other wholesalers as well. His mark up is very minimal. He charges $17.00-$20.00 for his 500 cakes and sells some of his 25-shot cakes for as little as $4.50. He just sells from a little building in his backyard and he's not in it for the money. He's a lot like me. He's just a fireworks fanatic. I purchased several items from him that I couldn't get from the wholesaler. I also purchased several high end items and lots of overloaded and 1.3g stuff from another retailer that I found last year. Their prices are very high, but they sell stuff that others aren't willing to put on the shelves. The owner prides himself on having the loudest, most powerful fireworks in the area. As long as it doesn't actually say 1.3g on the label, he'll sell it. I got some really nice cakes and salutes from him. 

Here are the shell kits that were used: 2 boxes of Predator shells, 2 boxes of Rambo Kid shells, 3 boxes of Shell Shock double-break shells, 3 boxes of Sky Inferno triple-break shells, 1 Merlin double-break kit, 2 boxes of Amazing Bursts canisters, 1 box of Spirit of America canisters, 2 boxes of Temple of Heaven Small Display Shells, 5 boxes of Temple of Heaven Large Display Shells, 2 boxes of Temple of Heaven Noisy Shells, 4 boxes of Thundering King salute shells, and 1 box of Mega Ton quad shells. I think that's all of them.

Okay, the Amazing Bursts canister shells are terrible. Don't buy these! The Temple of Heaven Large Display Sells are awesome! You get 5 different chrysanthemum shells and 1 silver salute per box. These things are WAY more powerful than any other shell I have tried. They give a tremendous thump when they lift from the mortar. The color breaks break so loudly that they are very close to the salute shells. These are easily the best shells I have ever fired. They are a little bigger than normal shells. They just barely did fit into my mortar tubes. I believe that some of these shells actually said 2" on them. I'm pretty sure these are considered 1.3g shells. The Small Display Shells were also very impressive. They weren't far behind the Large ones. I believe that they are also 1.3g shells. The Mega Ton quads were above and beyond any multi-break shells I have fired. They were superb performers. 

Most of my 500g cakes were fired in groups of 2 of the same cake. Some were fired in groups of 3 and a couple were fired by themselves. Here's the big boys: 2 500g Green With Envy---this thing was beautiful. 1 500g Bulls Rule---I wasn't impressed with this one. 1 500g Professional Pyro. 2 500g Scuba Diver. 1 500g God Bless America. 1 500g Getting It Done. 1 500g Angler's Ambition. 2 500g BC Sparkling Willows---very pretty. 3 500g Dumb Blonde---Overloaded and very nice. 1 500g Freedom Reigns. 1 case of 4 500g Acid Rain. 1 BC Megatron 500g, 1 case of 4 500g Anti-Terrorism, 1 case of 4 500g Kingdom of Freedom---very nice angled cake. 1 case of 2 500g Super Cannon. 1 case of 4 500g Hicktown Heaven, 1 case of 4 500g March Forward---not too good for a 500g cake. 1 case of 4 500g Glow of Cosmos. 1 500g Crazy Crossette---simply awesome. 1 500g Blue Print---another great angled cake. 1 case of 6 500g Sinbad---These are terrible. Only 1 out of the 6 even worked. 1 500g Nice Winter. 1 500g Joys of Summer---This thing was overloaded big time. I was told that it and the Nice Winter were cakes meant for the European market. I think that's all of them. That's all I've got written down anyways. 

I guess the Crazy Crossette was probably the nicest 500g cake that we lit. The Joys of Summer and the Dumb Blonde were both overloaded with nice 1.3g reports.

The standard cakes were fired mostly in groups of 3 of the same cake but a few of them were fired in groups of 2. Also, we started lighting groups of 4 and 5 late in the show because we knew we weren't going to get it all lit if we didn't hurry. I wanted everything finished by midnight, so I could light my finale then. Here are the standard cakes that went up throughout the show: 3 25-shot UFO Invasion. 3 19-shot Golden Crackling Palms. 3 25-shot Magnificent Festival. 3 25-shot Laser Battle. 3 25-shot Lustrous Lights. 3 25-shot Super Flanker. 3 25-shot USA Day. 3 25-shot Beyond it All (Beyond 2000). 2 19-shot Best of Rock. 2 19-shot Golden Oldies. 3 25-shot Rock Your World. 3 25-shot Pacific Blue. 3 9-shot Ace Combat. 3 25-shot Royal Rumble. 3 36-shot Shocker. 3 19-shot Warp Speed. 2 60-shot Fantastic Flower. 2 60-shot Colorful Queen. 3 25-shot Megabanger Killer Alligators. 2 25-shot BC Big Bubba. 2 20-shot BC Heart Stopper. 2 100 Yellow Ribbons. 6 20-shot Land of Free. 3 12-shot Wat Dat Do. 6 25-shot Vegas At Night. 3 25-shot Wild Imagination. 3 25-shot Just Looking. 3 16-shot Far Out. 3 25-shot Rock N Roll. I think that's all of the standard cakes that went up during the regular part of the show.

I had some German Thunder Kings that I played with during the day. I think they are German. They say "FENIX" on the side of the tube. I also had a 1000g Conic Fountain that was impressive. It lasted about 90 seconds and easily hit the 30 ft. mark.

I was really surprised with all of the loud cakes this year. This must be the year of the overloaded cakes. It seemed like there were 
about 7 or 8 overloaded cakes that I wasn't expecting to be so loud. I was very impressed with all of the angled cakes. The 60-shot Colorful Queen and the 60-shot Fantastic Flower were great cakes. Both lasted about 90 seconds and had great color breaks. One of them had the 1.3g reports thrown in, but I'm not sure which it was. I have a feeling that both cakes are actually 1.3g cakes.

Now we come to the good part....my finale! This finale was awesome just like my last two. Everyone agreed that this one was better than the previous two finales. I had people walking up to me and shaking my hand while this finale was going off. They couldn't believe what they were seeing and especially couldn't believe what they were hearing. It was very bright, loud, and intense. I live 8/10ths of a mile from the local college and it looked like the college was lit up with spot lights. It was nothing short of spectaclar. Instead of just listing what was in the finale, I wrote down what was on each board. The 1st board contained 2 19-shot Double Pop Missiles, 2 10-shot Midnight Madness, 2 25-shot Thunder King, 1 12-shot Wat Dat Do, 2 25-shot Wild Imagination, 1 16-shot Far Out, and 1 25-shot Touchdown Tennessee. The cakes on this board were all fused with sticky match to ignite them all at once. I wanted one board to give a good 60 second or so burst while the other boards were lighting up.

The 2nd board contained 3 36-shot Super Bomb, 1 25-shot Thunder King 1 36-shot Battle of Colors, 2 9-shot Ace Combat, and 3 25-shot TD Tennessee.

The 3rd board contained 4 36-shot Battle of Colors, 4 25-shot TD Tennesee, 2 16-shot Far Out, 3 25-shot Laser Battle, 1 25-shot Vegas At Night, 1 25-shot Rock N Roll, and 1 25-shot Killer Alligator. 

The 4th board contained 4 25-shot TD Tennessee, 3 36-shot Battle of Colors, 2 500g Sinbad (The only Sinbad that lit was one of these), and 1 500g Anti-Terrorism.

The TD TN is a new overloaded cake for this year. It has loud reports. The Battle of Colors that I got this time isn't like the old ones. This one has weak color, but it has 1.3g reports. 

I also used an old mortar board to make a candle barrage. I used 15 American Thunder 1.3g candles all fused with sticky match to ignite at the same time.

My 32 tube mortar board was filled with 18 Temple of Heaven Large Display Shells, including 4 of the silver salutes. The other tubes were filled with a few Thundering King salutes and a couple Noisy Shell salutes, and double-break and triple-break shells. All of the Large Display shells were fused with sticky match to go up all together. Some of the other shells were also sticky matched with these. 

After the finale ended, I lit the loudest item of the night. A friend of mine gave me a homemade firecracker. I don't know how much flash he put in this thing, but it was the loudest thing I have ever heard. It was way louder than the 2" Ti Thunder Salutes that I had last year. It blew a rather large hole in my yard. This one scared a few people because I didn't let anyone know that I was lighting it. 

This all added up to one hell of a finale. It was awesome! 

In my opinion, the 500g 28-shot Crazy Crossette, The 500g Dumb Blonde, the 60-shot Colorful Queen, the 60-shot Fantastic Flower, the Mega Ton quad shells, and the Temple of Heaven Large Display Shells were all WOW items.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th. Let's do it again next year! 


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Me and my dad purchased your book way back in 1995 when it first came out. We are from NYC, manhattan to be exact and were getting ready for the big macy's show tonight which is actually 3 blocks from our house. Plus there will be a stealth flyover at 8pm so we are all pumped. I guess deep down inside however we all wish we were lighting off those 13 inch shells. Any way, have a blast! 


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This was without a doubt the best season we have had since in business. Alot of hard work and sleepless nights, but we are catching up now. We will take a little time off, " very little" and start back to work for our Christmas and New Year's season. We hope everyone had a good year and a safe one. Thank you.

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I had a fun 4th, except for the one fountain. I am and my two youngest sons
(13 and 15) launched fireworks in the yard for an hour or so. My eldest son (20),
recorded them on video tape for me. Some neighbors came by and they also enjoyed
our fireworks. I think we all had fun. We have to limit our selves to safe and sane stuff, because I have such a small yard and it is all that is legal. But still had some very good stuff, thanks to your books guiding me on what to buy. Everyone really liked the Silvery Cone. It is also illegal to launch fireworks on streets, alleys or any public places. Though, I have to
admit that the police seem to turn a blind eye to fireworks on the 4th. There was
some HUGE shells going off from a number of yards close by. 

But we had even a better 29th of June. This was my sons birthday and I set
up a small show with my electronic firing panel. Some other neighbors came
by to watch too and my sons aunts were there too. Every body got a chance
to launch fireworks using the firing panel. 

So why are fireworks more fun when there are more people watching? 

BTW I send a letter to a Black Cat representative about the fountain. I got a very nice email back from him apologizing about the fountain and expressing surprise at how expensive it was. He offered to send me a Black Cat cap or shirt free of charge to make up for the poor fountain. I thought that was a very nice gesture. 

the Black Cat fountain was called "Thunder Mountain". Even though, it was billed as the biggest fountain made in the U.S. (15.5 inches tall) and it was expensive ($10.00) compared to other Black Cat fountains.
It only ran for about 1 minute and there was nothing very special about its performance. Most of its base was hollow. 

BTW on the 4th I made a water fall using "Stars of USA" (Brothers?) you wrote about in your book. I took a 1x2 inch board and attached about a dozen or so "Stars of USA" using duct tape, 3 inches apart. I then fused this together using a fast visco fuse (1 sec/inch). The whole piece was then attached to 8 foot pole as a cross piece with the fountains pointing down. It took me about 1/2 hour to put together. It was impressive because the "Stars of USA" crackled a lot
and they lasted a very long time (57 sec). Most other 5 inch fountains would not last long enough to make a decent waterfall. 

To top it off, I placed a Black Cat "Glittering Stars" at the top of the pole. It is amazing how just putting the fountain higher in the air makes it even more impressive. You haven't written about the "Glitter Stars". It is a box fountain, but it has performance in length, quality and size equal to the "Rata tat tat" or "Pop Goes the Fountain", but it also has some color to it. I think it hits about ten feet, but it is wide too. Even on the eight foot pole some of sparks reach the ground, so you have eighteen feet of fountain. It has become one of favorites, if you can find it. It some times appears in assortments, but this year I found them in a store in Tennessee selling for $1.79 a piece. Wow! 

I also had another eight foot pole that I attached and fused three Squiggly Stars (Brothers) and then Sho-gun Colorful Wheel at the top. If you get the right fuse lengths, you get blue, red and green flames from each star at the same time and then the wheel kicks in. It is always a crowd pleaser. 


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Man we had 2 great shows this past weekend. 

The 1st consisted of 1 case of dragon artillery shells, 1 case of double break shells, 1 case of Quad shells, 6 boxes of n1000 noisy shells, six homemade 3 inch spider web shells, four 4 inch homemade shells, 1 homemade six inch shells, 72 m-80 type salutes, 72 8oz peacock rockets that had been modified with flash powder to make them salute rockets, 48 shogun rockets with 8x10 American flags attached to parachutes, 36 #100 brothers shells, 12 #200 grizzly shells, 12 #300 grizzly crossette shells, 12 Touchdown Tennessee (overloaded) 8 megabanger killer alligator (overloaded) 3 Class b battle of color. 3 class b Thunder kings, 40 heavyweight cakes, 2 rolls of 16000 firecrackers, and about 100 assorted regular cakes. 

We used fast uncoated visco to wire a finale to a floating dock, it consisted of 25 heavyweights, 6 touchdown Tennessee's, 4 killer alligators, 1 battle of colors, 1 thunder king, 25 m-80's, 24 of the single shot #100,200,300 shells. And the 6 inch shell. 

We started the show with several salute rockets to get everyone's attention this was at dusk. This was also the bands queue to start playing the national anthem. When they started the anthem we fired off 48 salute rockets and the 48 American flag rockets that were set up in a rack and fused with an improvised quick match (spray glue sprayed on the rack with black powder sprinkled on it) this fired all rockets at once. That was nice it was the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air and the flags were there. In perfect timing with the band. Then the show started with the artillery shells and cakes fired constantly for about 40 minutes. The fire crackers were started about 10 minutes into the show and went for the rest of the show because they were rolled out and strung together and each roll went for a little over 20 minutes each. When we were down to the last cakes the finale was started, we just sat back and watched. 

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Just lit a few mortars off. Enjoyed everyone else this year. 


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Hi Bob, I had a good forth..No problems with my show everything performed well. The quality of the new cakes was awesome.I ordered a bulk order of cakes a few weeks before the forth and planned the show..I shot about 70 standard cakes and 10 500gm cakes...Everything was fired with ematches from a small cd box hooked up with 10 cue slats and 25pin computer printer cable..I had three slats to form a 50 foot three station front..It was over in about 5-6 minutes but it was wild and nice..It was shot on the beach and everyone quit shooting during the show..I made some angled cake racks this year and they worked great...they were made of plywood and each cake was duct taped to a small piece of plywood that was then bolted to the rack with carriage bolts and wing nuts..It really sped up field setup and was very secure..I already had all the cakes taped to the small boards so all I had to do was bolt them on and fuse them.I'll be able to reuse them also...my favorite cakes were Saturn Ring by Firehawk..It was a 9 shot large bore tube cake that shot 9 double rings that had large symetrical long lasting stars of different colors..very cool rings...Also I liked the cracklin flowers in th brothers heavyweights.....by far the best forth ever for fireworks...I would definitely agree that we are in the golden age of fireworks..I hope it continues..hope everyone had a fun and safe fourth...

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Hey hope you had a good fourth mine was really. First i had my uncle jimmy bring me back some rokets from missouri. I asked for a $100 worth of rockets. He said he knew the people that owned the store so he gets it the same price as the store bought it.So they are really cheap and you get them by the case. Well instead of just $100 worth of rocklets he brought back the rocket's and a case of 300 shot saturn missle battery and a case of goliath artillery shells. Two in a case. So i had the artillary shells the saturn missle batterys,some fire phionx rockets, some lucky space rockets.A hawk challanger cake and a out of sight black cat cake (which i loved)! Some voyager rockets,and Some zenith Sky missles and they all were by the case which made a whole bunch. He also had some of his own fireworks kingtut's curse, some pinball wizard and a whole bunch of artillary shells, some fountains, Some brothers heavy Weights, and a black cat triple break finalle tube.

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I believe this was the best 4th ever, I had a show to put on for the 4th and another one to assist with on the 5th, both were great, I hope the other guy lets us all know what happens after his court date, YES, HE got arrested.

We started prepping for my show on the 3rd, I had about 50 or so of these 8 to 10 inch Pin wheels so we mounted them on 2X3 pieces of wood and quick matched them with sticky match, then I gathered up about 45 or so cakes, close to 50 small double parachutes, about 20 Happy Springs and about 20 single shot Spring Thunder, 5 large comets and over 100, 1&˛ inch shells. 

I took a sheet of ¸ inch plywood and split it down the middle,(2 X 8), and then added a 2 by 4 down each side, it makes it easier to move or run with if you have to! I started with the small parachutes and HOT Glued them down the middle if the plywood and fused them with 3mm flying fish fuse (great stuff), from there I lined the right side of the end, all down the right side and across the other end and then down the left side with cakes, along the way I added some of the spring thunder but most of them were at or near the end of the board, from there it went into a rack of 66 guns (6 X 11), that I quick matched in rows of 6 using the fish fuse to go down the side giving about 4 seconds between the first 8 rows and quick match for the last 3 rows. From there I had a rack of 24 guns, each with 2 shells in it and a comet strapped to the two ends, these were quick matched and quick matched to the rack of 66.

We started the Show at just after 9:00 with the pin wheels, the flash from the Sticky Match was GREAT, and then all the pin wheels went off and made a very nice opening. As soon as they were done I lit the fuse on the Plywood and went back and sat down to enjoy the show, the parachutes were OK, they shot up and dropped 2 small flares, 1 red and 1 green that floated slowly down (Nothing to write home about, note, next time not so many of them), when the Happy springs and the Spring Thunders went off that is where it really started. From there it went into all the cakes, since the cakes were right next to each other and the burn rate on the FISH FUSE is about .45 sec. an inch, it made for a GREAT show, there was a short pause about two thirds of the way through the cakes to let everyone catch there breath for a few seconds, then it went into all the larger cakes, Brothers Pro Ser. And others, just as they finished, the shells started going off, I had to use sticky match on them because I could not get the good stuff so they went off faster than I wanted but all in all it was GREAT. The show only lasted about 15 min and we never saw a cop, which was good because if they had showed up again this year, my wife would have killed me!!!!!!!! 

After that I had almost every kid in the neighborhood including mine, in my driveway setting off fountains until after 11:00, what a show !!!!!!!! 


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My 4th of July shopping season started in early June this year with my annual trip to Victory Fireworks in Wisconsin.  They seem to have a great variety of cakes along with excellent quality of material.  Once I collected all of my shooting material I started preparing for the show.  Actually, I prepared the music for the shows several months earlier which helped in the selection of particular fireworks to match the music.  I used my mini-96 firing system once again like I did last year.

	My first show was the second weekend in June on a large piece of property.  I setup 8 boards with 6 items on each board ranging anywhere from class C to small class B items.  I daisy-chained two sets of my mini-96 field modules together so that I could shoot the exact item in two different locations which always gives a great effect.  That used up 24 of my 96 queues.  Next, I used 60 queues to fire 88 shells and mines ranging from 2.5" to 6".  That was very impressive to all of the spectators.  Lastly, I fired 12 queues for the different size finale boxes that were setup.  The entire show took approximately 17 minutes to fire with the finale going for around 2 minutes.  This entire show was manually syncronized to music.

	The second show that I shot was the following weekend.  It consisted of a similar setup.  Once again I used 8 boards with 6 items on each board with the daisy chain setup as indicated above using 24 queues.  I used 12 queues to ignite an American flag set-piece along with 11 different 3" shells.  I used an additional 48 queues to fire 48 different shells ranging in size from 2.5" to 5".  My last 12 queues were dedicated to my 12 finale boxes.  The 48 items on the boards were class C and small class B items which were duplicated from two different firing zones just like the prior show.  The shells were very good quality shells that broke terrifically in the night sky.  The finale were boxed finales.  Once again, this entire show was syncronized to music while being manually triggered and lasted about 16 minutes.

	The last show was the 4th of July show.  It was fired exactly the same as my first show of the season except there were no 5 and 6 inch shells due to the proximity of the crowd.  I substituted a few different cakes in place of cakes that were shot during the first show just for varieity.  Also, I added two different set pieces one being the American Flag just for variety.  This show, too, was syncronized to music while being manually fired and lasted about 18 minutes.

	All three shows went off without any hitches and made the shooting experience quite enjoyable with a firing system.  I can enjoy most of the show instead of running around like a wild man trying to ignite fuses and not getting much of a chance to watch the show.   All I need now is to computerize the entire setup and I will definitely be able to watch the entire show.  Well, that is a dream of mine to accomplish one day if I get some time.  The one advantage of electronically firing is being a safe distance from the firing zone and being able to watch most of the show.  However, it does take quite a bit of time to setup the entire show.  I mainly used Brothers, Black Cat, PyroKing, and Winda material for my class C portion of the show and used Lidu, Beihai, Sunny, Wizard, and Thunderbird brands for the class B portion of the show.  Also, all of my electric matches either went directly into the quickmatch of the cake or shell or I made quickmatch extensions (electric match going into one end of a piece quickmatch and the other end of the quickmatch slides right over the piece of visco from the cake) for the visco fuse attachments.  Well, that was my three shows in a nutshell this year.  I sure hope everyone had as much fun as I did this year buying, setting-up, and shooting all of your shows.  Most importantly, I hope everyone had a very safe and happy 4th of July!


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Hi Bob . . . Thanks for asking! My fireworks show was great this year, partly because my selections turned out to be excellent, partly because a couple of friends brought some additional good and interesting items, and partly because I was able to teach three young friends about how to use fireworks carefully and have a blast in the process, so to speak. 

My audience is a small group of good friends, about 15 people I guess, and most of them didn't grow up with backyard fireworks, so they all think I'm quite brave and outrageous to do this every year. [Fireworks are definitely illegal where we live, but so far the local police don't seem to be too interested in giving us trouble.] And happily,my "fans" get braver every year and enjoy it more and more. The first year or so some of them wouldn't even touch sparklers, but now they're all really into that part, and like trying the different kinds, as well as some of the smaller spinners. 

I've followed your good suggestions and set up the larger pieces on a card table with a small lamp. And I put a cinder block well away from where everyone is sitting, from which to shoot off the fountains and other larger items. We particularly love the bigger rockets. I had a couple of Samurai Hunters left, and they are excellent--they go up quite high, explode and then explode again--very dramatic and beautiful.  The Tulip Rockets were fine, but not as dramatic as the Samurai Hunters.

The youngest person in our group is just about to start 6th grade and he was very eager to help light things this year. He's a great kid and was very willing to listen and be careful, and he was *thrilled* that I let him fire off some of the largest pieces. He told his mom later that it was one of the greatest days of his life!
I must say that I have mixed feelings about this--I'm sure most of us do--about enjoying teaching young kids to love something illegal. But I do tell them that I'm a big believer in civil disobedience as a means of resisting laws that I don't agree with, that for me it's a form of freedom of speech, for which I might have to pay some consequences one day. 

The other two "pupils" were the two young women who brought fireworks with them, but had no idea of how to shoot them off! So it was fun to work with them, too, helping them find the fuses, set things up at a safe distance, use a " punk" for lighting, etc. They also had the greatest time, and were surprised and happy to find someone as old and apparently conventional as I who totally enjoys fireworks.

The only ones we really didn't like, by the way, were a couple of strobe pieces that one of the girls brought--they were *very* intense, too bright to look at, kind of unsettling. My audience said please don't do those any more. But overall they loved it, and are asking for more, more for next year! 


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Hello from Michigan the Great Lakes State I hope everyone out there had a safe and awesome 4th! I sure did. Mine started in early June with an excursion to Indiana to round out my supply of fireworks for the show this year it had to be special we had a combonation graduation party for my nephew and home coming party for his sister my neice who is home on leave from Korea (she's in the Army). The party was scheduled for the 5th. We found a pretty decent shop in northern Indiana using your book Fireworks Dealers of the U.S.A. They had good selection and decent prices for the most part but for some reason there prices on larger regular cakes (ie killer alligator, coconut grove song)were way to high. We were able to fill out the show quite nicley though with their other repeaters from a brand I've never heard of called Boomer Brand. The ones we were Bada Bing, Freezing Rain, and The Whole Enchilada. They were all pleasant surprises but the last one was exceptionally good. We also bought Dark Knight, Super Stallion from Brothers and Twist & Shout which is Fireworks Over America I think. We also picked up several fountains Golden Gate Bridge, Powerful fountain, Veiw of the Mississippi, and Butterflies and Flowers. Finally I bought a Flash Bang shell kit. When we got back I had a message from a friend that his friend was ready to take our annual order. I got a Battle of Colors (the good version), Red White and Blue Crossette (also a good version), Ghost Killer shell kit, Big Blow Out repeater (very nice),Big Deal repeater (also nice), and my favorite 2 inch Blue Thunder Salutes I got a dozen of these. I combined these with stuff I had left from the year before Shell kits: best of brothers, pyro king, double impact, artillary shells, and festival balls. Repeaters:super crackling rainbow, double delight, pyro pandemonium, killer knight, dragon trill, battle of colors, and a few others. All together I had 80 reloadable shells 20 repeaters and a few rockets such as scorpion rocket, splendor of the sun, tulip, artillary, and samurai hunter. It was my best show ever. We also went to a place north of here the last weekend in June to a small vestival and flea market every year they put on the best fireworks show in the area it's amazing for such a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. and for the 4th we travelled 90 miles north to my inlaws and spent 2 days camping there. The highlight of my trip was helping the local pyro tech set up the town display and getting some info on how to go about getting licensed for 1.3G display fireworks I think I'm going to try next year. Setting up the show was a whole day of hard labor but watching it go up was a super pay off. So it's safe to say I had an awesome 4th I hope you and everyone else did to GOD BLESS AMERICA! 

As usual we go out to the house of some of our friends from church and have a party. This year the father of the house that we went to became a licenced pyrotechnic. This means he had Class B pyro on hand that he could legally fire. He was also selling fireworks this year as he was last year too. What we did was the father of the house let everyone that came (mostly people from church) purchase their fireworks (or bring their own) from him and set them off when it became dark. There were about 6 or 7 people that shot their own fireworks while a good-sized crowd of people watched. I shot a few but, since we have company coming in from Kansas Tuesday the 8th, I saved most of my stuff for then.

One of my friends who happens to live at the house where we were at was going to fire one of my shells for me. I did not watch him too closely but we were going to fire them at the same time. (By the way the shell he was shooting was the TNT "Big 5, 1" Canister, Maximum Blast" which is new this year. It has six shells that break 5 times each. It is really cool, but on with the story...). After we lit and backed up my shell fired first and then, BOOM! He had put it in, up-side-down. It was a mass of explosions because the shell he shot broke 5 times. Man, it was pretty scary, but cool at the same time.

After everyone was done with their fireworks, which was about 9:30, the annual firework's show began that the father of the house puts on every year for everyone. This year I was back there helping fire this year. We had a whole pickup truck load full. About 13 big boxes full of fireworks. We had the fireworks constantly going, never a moment where there was nothing going on for almost 2 hours. We had big fountains, cakes, and a multitude of shells. The father of the house mixed in his professional pyro in shooting 3, 4, and 5 inch shells. The stuff he shot was TIGHT!!!! My favorite that he shot was the 3" salutes. They were so loud you could literally hear it echoing in the woods for probably 15-20 seconds. 

The show was over and everyone left around midnight or so. The show that the father of the house puts on gets better every year and looking back at how good it went this year, I really can't wait until next year! Hope everyone had a great 4th!!!
I just wish my b-day was on the 4th so that people could buy me fireworks instead of gifts because the 4th is my favorite holiday out of all! Thanks again! 

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My story starts out with buying around 800 bucks worth of fireworks. Why you might ask? because i love them. Then i take all of my goodies from my home in Virginia Beach VA down to the outer banks of North Carolina. See down their the police are a little more lenient or so i though. (read on) my vacation started on the 28 of June and went for one week. I had enough fireworks to set off a nice show every night of the week and then still have a bunch left over for the 4th. well the shows were nice with some very nice 2 1/2 inch color shells and some "special" repeaters every night. Well about on the 4th night a police man decided to wander onto the beach and ruin my fun. He informed me that i could go to jail fo 90 days and that i needed to stop but he didn't take anything away from me which was cool. So i laid low until the 4th came around. I took the time to lay out each item with a number on it so that firing would go easy. I started my show just as dusk fell and by the end of it i had probably over 100 people chearing me on. My favorite items would have to be these great Russian Cakes that i got my hands on. The colors and noise were just incrediable. When it came time for my finally board i hooked up 20 repeaters in 3 rows so that it would be very intense. THese items were. 5 4th of july parades
4 howling tiger cakes
1 whistling colorful wirlwind
1 jumbo mighty cobra
2 air defense set at angles
1 new century
2 blue pearls
3 salute repeaters
1 competing birds

This lasted about 2 1/2 minutes and was the most intense barrage i have ever shot. Then i ended it with 5 noisy shells and one 3 inch salute. By the way the police never came and i had a great 4th. I figured out by the end of the day why i like shooting fireworks so much and that would have to be the chears of the crowds and the little kids that wanted to be like me. I know it sounds crazy but thats why i do it, i like the attention. Hope every one else had a great 4th like me!!!!!!!!! 

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This 4th of July for me was 100 times better than last year, when I lit no fireworks and had a generally stupid 4th. This year we went up to my niece's house in Redlands, California, and I lit fireworks for 5 hours with my nephew and the rest of the family. My nephew kept begging me to start lighting fireworks in the afternoon, he didn't want to wait until dark.  We lit some daytime stuff, including the Sky Tigers parachute shells, and it was fun but it was very hot in the daytime. When the sun started to go down we started to light more things and pretty much kept lighting things almost continuously from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., not non-stop, with small breaks in between each item. We lit about $350 worth of stuff. I had put all the items in the trunk of my car in case cops came by, they wouldn't see the stash of items. Nothing was choreographed or planned out too much in advance. I just kept taking things out of the trunk and lighting them. I was careful to vary what they were, like a fountain, then a shell, then a helicopter, then a cake, then another shell or two (or 4), and so on. The neighbors on both sides and both sides of the street started all sitting out on their lawns and driveways, watching. I passed out sparklers to all of the neighbors that I could see. Some of them had smaller fireworks they had bought at the stands in San Bernardino. But the stuff we have easily overwhelmed the little things they were lighting. And we could see and hear other people lighting fireworks down the street and on nearby streets. This is in a town (Redlands) where fireworks are completely illegal. But the cops there don't seem to try to enforce it on the 4th of July since there are so many going off. There was a huge public fireworks display going off at the University of Redlands, about 3 blocks away from where we were, obviously a big-budget show that they were charging admission to get into. It was a beautiful and elegant show, with really big and fancy fireworks. There were dozens of people walking by us all the time, walking over to get a vantage point to see the big public display. We could see everything in that show from our front yard, except the ground and low-level items they were doing. It was a massive show and from our perspective, our stuff and the big public display sort of blended into one continuous panorama of fireworks for a while. It was an incredible night of fireworks, it cost me $350 but it was worth it, and my 8-year-old nephew had the time of his life.   Some of the neighbors came over and thanked us for putting on such a good show, and asked me where I got the stuff, and how much did it all cost and things like that. And my nephew was in fireworks delirium of course. His mom, my 28-year old neice, got into the act at the end, lighting some rockets and shells too. It was really the perfect 4th of July, fireworks-wise at least. Nobody complained to us at all, and we never saw any cops until it was all over and we were cleaning up, and a cop car drove down our street, blasting its buzz thing as a signal to everyone to quit lighting fireworks. It never stopped, just drove down the street. Finally we reached the NLTB point (nothing left to burn) and ate some pie and pretty much collapsed into exhaustion. We did it right.

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Allright, I enjoyed my 4th even though I spent it alone this year.I'm being honest by saying that I enjoyed being alone,too, even though the 4th is generally a social holiday. I made a trek to Fillmore and the Freedom Fireworks venders and bought some ground-blooming flowers by TNT and a Piccolo Pete, and a couple of wheel devices that come equipped with a nail.(can't think of their whole name) In the past, I've bought the "family packs" at the Freedom Fireworks venders and Blockbuster venders there in Fillmore. However, I discovered long ago that the packaging was was more extraordinary than the fireworks.Plus, a variety pack is not inexpensive.

Believe it or not, it doesn't take wild shooting colors and whistles for me to enjoy,like the fountains and cones produce. I'm more simple, I guess. I actually really enjoy the little "Fireants" brand of small spinning rings,if you will.Being the fireworks guru, you would know the proper name for that effect more than I would. Unfortunately, the "Fireants" were not available this year, at any of the venders.Smoke-effects and snakes don't do it for me,either.Their used to be an item called "Aladdin's Lamp" that was nifty, though I found that they did not always function consistently.Those were unavailable too.I like a loud,structured bang or two, and always enjoy blue colors more than any other. I do like bottle-rockets,though I haven't had any forever, and they aren't allowed in California anyway.Don't be mistaken,though, they still get set off all over the city.I think all legally-approved, factory produced firecrackers and bottle rockets should be available in EVERY state.Though should be no exceptions.Perhaps designated areas within the city is a good idea, for any rockets.I began going to Fillmore to enjoy setting off fireworks because the fear of police largely takes the joy of setting fireworks off,and celebrating the 4th of July, in a city that forbids them.I mean, you have to hide your independence celebration,....no matter how safe you are being!! I've never had any problems with the cops, but the concern is there,and I know people who have.So what's the point? I avoid regulated, city organized fireworks displays, such as at the local college here, because there is always large throngs of people, and the atmosphere is chaotic and a little too tightly packed for me.Plus, I enjoy the more simple fireworks over the truly spectacular ones. 

Back in the 1970's my dad and I would go to his friends barbeque on the 4th, go swimming and watch him set off bottle-rockets by his pool.I became kind of intrigued with simple bottle-rockets,with a single "BANG", or report, back then.And in Louisiana, EVERYBODY sets off firecrackers and rockets on the 4th. I have some relatives in Lake Charles,LA, and they love the little Black Cat firecrackers. 

The politics of some of the Southern states is mc more freedom-based than California or others.And freedom is what the Fourth is about right?

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My Independence Day started in May of 2002. I place a large order with victory in Minn. and picked it up in New Mexico. I drove to my state where only safe and sane crap is allowed. My 4th was good last year but much better this year. the cops have a "0 tolerance" policy but nobody seems to listen here.Ha Ha! I started off with a board of preloaded tubes starting with a triple splitter and then a few grucci tubes ending with a #500 phantom tube. It was a nice start to the little show. This show took place at a block party in my neighborhood. Everyone wanted to know where I got the "good stuff" I used 25 regular cakes, 5 500g cakes, and 10 tubes along with some reloadable shells. All cakes were by brothers.
My finale stated a few minutes early thanks to an elderly lady who called the cops. It consisted of 3 cakes, 2 500g cakes and 6 preloaded tubes. It was my first finale and the crowd really liked it. I connected and timed it all with visco. I used electrical tape for connecting and it worked like a charm!! the cops showed up 5 minutes after the finale but just drove on by. I did it all again on the 5th at the dunes on the state beach on the 5th. It was a fun and great weekend!!

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On May 17th I made a trek to A& W sales in Pa. It is an excellent source for consumer fireworks. I live in upstate NY, 40 miles north of new york city. I have purchased fireworks from this source for the past 10 years. I started assembling my board displays about a month prior to the 4th. I fuse roman candles together 4 at a time and tape them together. They consisted of Cannon brand: 10 ball, crackling candle, 21th century salute candle, 8 ball crazy magic candle and Temple of Heaven brand: 8 shot colored flashing thunder . I mounted 8 sets for a total of 32 candles on a piece of plywood by means of silicon adhesive. I hung this on two poles which I inserted into the ground with a threaded bolt through the top of each pole. I made a wire hanger on two ends of the plywood and placed the piece on the back section of the poles. On the front I made a display consisting of a Cannon brand Pyro Wheel mounted in the center of the plywood and on each side I had 6 cannon flashing whips affixed to the plywood with double backed tape.This piece was hung on the front part of the threaded bolt. NOTE: The fuses were wired together with craft wire and the pieces were fused together with Visco fuse. This was the initial piece in the display. One person lit the fuse on the Roman candle board and the other the front(pinwheel board) . A Cannon brand Space Bastian fountain was also lit offset from the described display. This makes a nice kick off piece. Following a series of aerial repeater cakes were set off. Two shooters were used stationed approximately 30' apart and alternated the firing sequence. Approximately 1/2 way through the display a display of 35 reloadable shells was set off . The tubes were affixed to a 30gal. fibredrum cover by means of silicon adhesive and taped around the circumference as an extra precaution. The fuses were then connected via craft wire and visco fuse. This makes for a nice display. I save the tubes from year to year and replace if they lose their integrity. THE ITEMS USED IN MY DISPLAY WERE AS FOLLOWS: A&W SALES 61 SHOT REPEATER ASSORTMENT consisting of clustering cicadas, whistling colorful floral, reporting red, swarming beehive, rising dragons, double barrel barrage, wasp floral silvery eagle, flora nova, screeming green, new festival balls and reporting purple. All of these are ok. and for the price a steal. Other cakes used were 20 shot stars and stripes rising, 70 shot flying dragons and jumping tigers, 19 shot coconut grove(GREAT CAKE) BROTHERS BRAND: 16shot rocky mountain, 19 shot whistling egg, 20 shot larry, 14 shot warring states, 25 shot nightmare, 9 shot glider bomb, 25 shot rainbow knight, 16 shot wild bear, 15 shot winner, clone, master of magic, 25 shot delta force, 40 shot paddlewheel . CANNON BRAND: 19 shot super fighter. The finale consisted of another battery of 35 reloadable morters, 3 of BROTHERS BRAND PRO SERIES REPEATERS: 21 shot airborne artillery, 21 shot behind the myth, 21 shot silver lining, this was followed by CANNON BRAND: 29 shot air heads(500 gram repeater) , FLOWER BASKET BRAND : tm repeater #2 and Spring thunderstorm repeater. All of the above items were good to excellent. THE RELOADABLE SHELLS CONSISTED OF : CANNON BRAND: Whistling artillery, crackling artillery, 3 break shells,tri-play artillery. BROTHERS : Airhawk artillery , king of universe, and pyronormal experience. DRAGON EGGS BRAND; r-2 d-2 , gemini bomb and king of canister shells. These all were good performers and worked well in conjuction with each other. OVERALL THE DISPLAY WENT WELL AND THE AUDIENCE ENJOYED IT.Prior. To the display we warmed up with some sky rockets, Two deserve mention CANNON BRAND; EXOTIC PINBALL ROCKET AND DRAGON EGGS BRAND: KING OF CROSSETTE ROCKET(EXCELLENT PERFORMER)

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I unfortunately was not one of the shooters this year, two kids and not enough time to travel to Indiana to get them. I did however enjoy the thousands of fireworks shot off by others at our neighborhood park. 

I live in Chicago, Illinois, one of the lame states where fireworks are illegal. We are surrounded however on all sides with states where they are legal so come 9:00, you would never know the difference. Chicago police do not enforce our state's ban until about 11:30 at night, so there is generally a lot of action. I don't know about the rest of Illinois, but Chicago is pretty cool.

People here either shoot fireworks in their alley or at a park. There was a lot of action at the park so my 2-year old daughter and I headed over there to take in the sights, sounds, and smells of the best China had to offer us. 

We weren't disappointed but I have no idea what specific fireworks we were looking at. There were a lot of re-loadable shells, I particularly liked the variety with double breaks. I also saw a lot of the repeating mine types, I was amazed at the performance of some of them. My daughter loved them, I was a bit nervous and half expecting the child welfare people to bust me for bringing her into a battle zone but she made it home unscathed. 

My favorite part of the Fourth of July is actually the Fifth of July. Since I was about five I set out every Fifth looking for "duds" and firecracker labels I didn't already have. I am now 35 and I still collect them, only now I've expanded into all types of fireworks. I literally filled four garbage bags with spent items I didn't already have before I got too tired. 

I saw a lot of Phantom Brand items in particular. I also noticed that all of the item names from when I was a kid are still around but with different names, sometimes by several manufacturers. Items like Happy, Toot & Twirl, Coo-Coo, Saturn Missile, Garden In Spring, Clustering Bees, and 96 Shot Pearl all were items I used to get when I was a kid but all have new label styles.

Thanks for listening, can't wait until next year already.

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My story is about a quest for a certain bottle rocket that I consider the best all time firework ever. I have been searching for it for almost twenty years now. Only one dealer in Northwest Arkansas had them and stopped selling them the year after I bought them. This bottle rocket is called "Star Travel" and is apparently made by Tiger Head Brand. They look like ordinary bottle rockets but they have a powerful launch and explode with colored balls. They cost more but are the best firework "bang-for- your-buck", which is why I think dealers, at least in my area, stopped selling them. (So they could sell more expensive junk!) I stopped looking for long time but decided to search the internet tonight. The only reference I could find was from your 1999 stories page so I once again have hope. Maybe people will read this and renew interest in this excellent bottle rocket. Star Travel rules! 


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I should have followed your advice concerning m-80/s and larger, illegal fireworks. On the 16th of June, I evidently sold some to a police informant. The next knock on the door was three police officers waiting for a search warrant. Knowing the jig was up , I simply let them in to search. They confiscated about 7 dozen homemade, call em' m500's and around 25 boxes of legal waterbomb firecrackers made by Shogun. In my home state of Iowa only certain sparklers, caps and snakes are allowed. The las states you can posess fireworks but not light them or sell them. Why would anyone have them for any other reason unless possibly a collector of old fireworks. In the 30's a town burned down and the cause was some kids lighting a retailers supply in the basement of his store. No controls for safety in those days like now but the citizens of Iowa that enjoy their own fireworks have to break the law by going to South Dakota, Missouri or Wisconsin to purchase consumer fireworks. I haven't been charged with anything yet but who knows what the next knock on the door will consist of. All I can say to the other readers is take heed, obey the law even if you don't agree with it or be prepared to pay the price. I could end up with a sizeable fine and possibly lose my freedom. Just for a loud bang.

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We had a huge block party. Ontario doesn't allow fireworks, but the neighboring city (Chino) does, so they (the safe and sane types and the better ones from out of the state) found their way to the party for some great fun. There were alot of morter shells and repeters, very nice, lots of food, music and fun. One of our better block parties! I would like to start a petition to make fireworks legal in Ontario. I grew up with them and find it a shame that most cities in this area have banned them. I hope it's not a trend. It's just not the same to watch a display as it is to fire it yourself. I'm also thinking of joining the WPA to enjoy the bigger stuff.

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I was asked by my Yacht Club to put on a show for them in the bay the Yacht Club is located in. Since it was going to be a high tide I knew I needed to be out in the water to shoot. I got them to put together a 40X16 foot platform to shoot from and put it in the middle of the bay so all the boats were safe and I could not reach shore with my shots either. Perfect set up. 
I made flats with cakes attached to them. A total of 9 flats with over 60 cakes. Probably at least 25 different cakes. All the cakes on each flat were fused together. I also had over 90 fiberglass morters to launch my shells from. All those were preloaded and fused up too. I also took out about 60 extra shells to reload during the show. I had someone start some music on shore I had put together. The show started at 10:30 and ended just before 11pm. There were no less than 3 cakes in the air all the time and then I filled in with an assortment of 1 3/4inch shells of all discription. From double peanut to canister shells of all different brands. For my finale I was able to get my hands on a 150shot Lidu Cake called Happy Stars. It was incredible. Just as that was finishing up I sent up almost 20 shells at one time and they all ended within a few seconds of each other. 

I have never gotten more thank you's and praise for one of my shows as this one. It was worth all the time and effort that went into this show just for the looks on everyone face when it was over. A 4th to remember for me.

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I had a great 4th of July this year. I spent about $300-$400 at the local stands and found some stands had replaced a lot of small cakes with walls of 500gm heavy weights. But I basically purchased mostly cakes and art. shells and fused them all together with visco and quickmatch for one heck of a show. I used plywood and elmers to glue them down. I used clear packing tape to fuse the visco together and it worked well. Here is a list of my notable items. With a 1-10 rating. 10 being the best...

A Little Greeen - Perhaps the best item this year, HUGE blasts, loud, and very green, one person watching commented that it was like it was ripping the sky apart. 10

Martin Bombers - Always a good one - lots of punch for a small item, make sure they are secured well, i've heard of them tipping easily - still a 9.

Niagara Falls - Super Bright - my wife's favorite. Huge shots of bright white mines, not loud but a crowd pleaser. 10 

Spirit of Missourri - I was disappointed, was better in the past. Low breaks and not very impressive in size, color, or height. 3 

Big Chief Artillery Shells (12) - Great shells! Big comets on the way up, nice BIG bursts and great color. People kept asking me what shells those were. 9.

Daggerfalls - Great fish repeater, nice and quiet, lots of fish. 9 

Firing Squad - Great noise cake. Always a top item. 10 

Shagadellic Mojo - Good item, good bursts, nice colors too. 9+ 

Cajun Pagent - Great color cake, nice noise too, overall a winner. 9 

Garden in Spring - Seemed even weaker than I remembered. 4 

Pyro Alert/Pryo Pandemonium - These two went off at the same time during the show, and so it was hard to tell them apart but the combined effect was AMAZING! 10

Thunder King Single Shot - Very Loud. 9

1 7/8" salute shells - one word...BOOM!!! 10 

Artillery Shell Rocket - Great rockets, nice altitude and big burst! 9 

Strobe Pots - Awesome brightness, suprising length. Always a great item, worth the $, better than the cheap ones. 10 

Electromagnetic Bomb - Nice little items, good strobe, good crackle, then even a nice sized pop. Cool little items. 9 


That's it for now, Bob, I left my notes for the show at the lake where I shot them off and wont have them until next monday, but this is what I can remember for now.

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it was great. i am in the military and spent my last 2 years stationed in california...making fireworks not an issue. i reciently moved back to the midwest and this was my 1st 4th in a few yrs to which i could celebrate.

this year was the best display i have put on to date. first year that i bought any reloadable artillery shells. they were awesome. some of the items i can comment positively on are as follows: 

grizzly....they make a 1.5 single artillery shell which is awesome! 

sound of the city....one of my favorite fountains of all time...i always stock up on these.

black cat made a new fountain this year...i believe it was called the "skyscraper" amd ot went on for over 3 minutes simply awesome 

did some shopping at shelton fireworks this year, picked up 2 boxes of their "daytime parachute reloadable artillery shells"...6 shots each and only 3 out of 12 did what they were supposed to do. the other 9 launched but came back to ground before doing what they were supposed to do. while shopping there, at check out they threw in a bunch of free stuff....2 of which were night time parachutes. only one launched and it did not perform as described. 

i will not be going out of my way to make it out to shelton in the future 

i went into one of the local fireworks places and it turns out one of the owners has a husband, who retired from the military. when she found out i was a part of the war on terror in afghanastan after 911...she handed me a box....and told me to fill it up...its on the house. that was too cool. i did not take any items that i would not have bought if it wasnt being given to me...i did not take advantage

so all these things and more, my 4ht was great. i did have a few items i will never buy again....but i have more that will be a definate part of my show next year


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well the only down point of my fourth was the weather, it was hot so all the smoke from the fireworks kind of just stayed in the air, it was very difficult to see. but on the other hand i got all of my stuff about a week before the fourth, lots of cakes shells, i even had some 3 inch shells as well, those were awsome. a friend of mine who was also with me had bought some tuve items from Phantom, about 30 single shot tubes and about 5 or 6 racks of 5 or more shots and some cakes. i also had theses 34 inch rockets that were aswome. i had a bunch of roman candles and fountains to give a more low level effect while i prepared the shells and cakes, just to keep something going while we set up more stuff. i didnt realy plan anything big i kind of new wat all my stuff did, the shells said in the wrapper what it was an some cakes said on its side what it did. i kind of just went there and started pulling stuff out of boxes and lighting it. everything i had was awsome the 3 inch shells were unbelieveable, they had a gold tail going up and then asst. burst but my favorite were the two 3 inch titanium salutes i had i love the loudness of them. you can feel it in your heart. the tube items i had were awsome very hi and beautiful asst. bursts, the cakes i had were awsome my finale cake was good a 33 shot 500 gram cake called the Megabanger Meagaton and i had a 19 gold mines to titanium salute but that tipped over after the first shot, shootin in the direction of the crowd, but luckily no one was hurt or injured, thank god..........but i had ao much fun this fourth and i hope the same for everyone else. im looking foward to reading everyne elses stories........ 


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My fourth was a blast....i did safe and sane fireworks until it was dark when i busted out some salute shells and rockets.. my friend and i shook the neighborhood with the salutes. when the first one blew off it set off two car alarms a quarter mile away. after a couple hours of that i launched a couple three inch salutes....those are awesome upclose. a couple minutes later we noticed that the neighbors field was on fire so we helped them put it out...unfortunately the fire truck still came even though it was out so that spoiled the rest of the night of illegal fireworks. All in all it was pretty fun and i hope yall had a good time too!!

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I spent about $350.00 from Victory Fireworks in Wisconsin and had them shipped to my workplace, also in Wisconsin. I set up my cakes on several boards, tacked down with duct tape. I tried a few #200 shells, but ultimately found them to be worthless--not even as close in quality to the shell kits you can buy nowadays. I created a finale, fused together with visco, that consisted of a mammoth smoke, a #200 shell, a 100-shot Saturn Missile Battery, 2 Canton Moon Cakes, 2 100-shot Magical Barrages, and a big cake called New Era. It went off pretty well, though I could have timed it a bit better to have the larger explosions going off last! The cakes were all pretty good, with notable highlights being Raptor, Exotic Mash, Crashing Rainbow, Commando, and City Crasher. My two disasters were the Wailing Wheel that caught on fire, and the Mean Green that shot sparks into my foolishly open Sky Travel Barrage, incinerating the whole thing!. All in all, a great show, with not a single cop visit and lots of happy neighbors. I hope yours was a blast too! 

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Bob, our 4th of july went great this year.This time we have more cakes than anything else.my brother and I were amazed by the performance of the brothers cakes like FALCON RISING, WILD WEST. I picked up a bunch of the small black cat cakes called 48 shot color pearl flower --- good quiet performance from such a small cake!!The SILVER DRAGON CANDLES did'nt have the traditional thick red tail this year--bummer.It had just a small silver ball effect.Had a couple of CRAZY ACES--- very good candle.everyone in our neighborhood was lighting off smaller types of fireworks paticularly fountains which in being sold "EVERYWERE" in our of state of connecticut.I purchased about 10 boxes of MAGIC CRYSTAL'S.They fly so straight that I would say even better than some large rockets!We had the same number of people watching as the other years and, they all loved it.Had some different cakes this time from a new company called UNITED PYRO.I heard this company stepped in because of all the trouble BROTHERS was having with importing there items into this country.The cakes were good though not as exceptional as Brothers Brand.All in all it took about a week to light off everything by doing the little stuff during the week and, the loud strong items on 4th of july...


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I've been pretty busy this year and I don't have much time now so this will be short. I've done three professional shows this year including my towns local show for their yearly festival. This years show was great. I had some great shells I'd never shot before as well as some new cakes. We started out with something new this year called Z-Rainbow cake It looked kind of smallish and wasn't expecting much then I shot it and WOW very long tailed colored comets shot high in the air the tubes were on angle and they fired sequentially and worked back and forth across the sky. Very neat! Also shot some 4 inch mine shells that I had not had before My favorite ones would go up as a blast of long tailed stars and broke into tailed crossettes. COOL! We ended with a pre finale of twelve 2" Tiger Tail candles with red white and blue shells breaking above and followed with a finale of 2.5" thru 5" shells that lasted almost 90 seconds. Very nice show very clean only two misfires(shells that weren't hooked up correctly.) 

Went to the big city and worked on a show that was supposed to be choreographed to a live orchestra, Lots of problems shoot site issues and equipment break downs etc didn't learn any thing new and the show was only very loosely choreographed. But we had a great seat for the big shells!! 

On to the class c stuff we usually wait until later in the year to shoot this stuff but at the last minute we got together at my folks acreage and put on a show. We did allot of 500gram (12--that's allot for us) cakes this year we had a few class B cakes (thunder flower, shimmering crackling gold etc) but they weren't as impressive as in the past We had about 25-30 regular cakes taped down to boards and shot probably about 100 shells. 

We made homemade Quickmatch and taped several cakes together and hand lit the show to save time most every thing performed as expected except there were allot of gaps. As we watched the tape the product seemed pretty good but we had lots of gaps with nothing happening. We weren't as organized as we normally are due to lack of time but it was fun going back to hand lighting and we will probably continue to due this and work on our timing. 

Here's a few things I thought performed very well. 

Black Cat Sunflower 500GM cake nice brocade type breaks actually kind of looks like a sunflower 

Black Cat Sparkling Willow 500gm cake 25 shot My favorite cake of the evening long sparkling comet to sparkling willow type break not overpowering or allot of branches but VERY pretty has a little finale at the end 

WINDA Liquid Robot I think it was a double break a good pop and then some nice flying fish I liked it 

Black Bomb (Cannon??) 20 shot 500gm on angles 5 at a time this also had some nice willows and good sky coverage 

we shot mostly Black Cat Pro-Mag shells and they did well but I miss the old Excalibur Shells can't find them any more and I wasn't happy with the last BH Rambo Kid shells I shot last year 

A new shell I did find this year was "Big Gold Willows" 6 to a box 1&3/4" being a gold willow fan I couldn't pass it up so I took a few boxes. They performed better than I expected with nice thick gold branches. I'll buy them again!! 


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Well to begin i started with about 20 ftns in which a lot fo my friends were helping me lite off,we then moved on to better things;strobes,piccolo petes,and box ftns.we then moved onto firecrackers by tapping like 5 m90s together w/ duct tape and lighting one to produce a rapid effect.we then screwed around with the h2o dynamite.we then moved on to Roman Candel Wars in which we shot each other with roman candels,the best thing to do woth em.we then moved onto bottle rkts which were the same old.then to some pop rkts,banger rkts,dragon rkts and some others which had good displays.we then got into repaeters by starting with 16, 25 and 100 shot saturn batteries andf then into 16, and 36 shot happy planets,then we went into news transimetters and garden in springs before we got into the heavy duty stuff.we then started with our repaeters starting from a 16 shot all way to 100shot repeater.for our finally we only had 3 500 grams in which we lite off.also after a lot of mayhem we screded around with some extra
stuff;planes,spinners,bees,and any left overs,and some cool items called ground pounders.no cops came by except to watch because we did them in an open area.we would move from time to time on our atv's but overall we didnt have to move that far,everytime their was a lot of smoke,ie huge reapeter we drove to another sopot to put on another repater.overall we had a great time and are planning to do another one next year.

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Well, for my 4th of July I had my dad buy me mostly firecrackers, but some artilery shells. My Uncle Billy had 5 times as many crackers as I. He only poped half of them! He still had over half to explode. bla bla some more... 


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Hi everyone. My fourth was great this year. I had more fireworks than ever before. I live in that great state of New York, so coming by fireworks is not always easy. But a couple weeks before the fourth, my friend who knew that I was looking for fireworks, got a list to order from and passed it on to me. The prices weren't too terrible for the black market. I had a feeling that was later confirmed that this guy had bought everything he was selling from Patriotic Fireworks. It was kind of depressing paying such a markup when I knew exactly how much her got everything for, but I just couldn't get down to Patriotic. Here's what I ended up ordering: 2 gross triple whistle bottle rockets ($7 each), 1 mat 80/16 firecrackers ($8), 1 roll 1000 firecrackers ($10), 2 96 shot color pearl ($5 each), 2 cobra strike cakes ($10 each), 1 victory celebration ($10), 1 coconut grove song ($20), and finally the Times Square assortment including festival balls, 6 magical roman candles, 12 4oz. rockets, 12 planes, 1 gross moon travellers, thunderstorm cake, 25 shot saturn missile battery, kaleidoscope, large twitter glitter, 40/16 firecrackers, and more fountains, cakes and other items. The assortment cost $90. All together I spent $182 and ended up getting some free fireworks too from the seller (news transmitter, dozen cuckoo fountains, ground bloom flowers, etc.) and from a friend who couldn't use 4 96 shot color pearls, 1 cobra strike, and 1 victory celebration.
On the fourth I ended up making 2 boards with tubes on them to help light the fireworks. Each board had a tube for lighting festival balls (I had a leftover tube from when I lit them a few years ago). There was also a short tube to light bottle rockets from and a larger one for the 4 oz. rockets and roman candles.
A little after 9pm, after a BBQ with my cousin and her family, I took my large duffle bag full of fireworks and the boards to a wide open park around the corner from me that's notorious for fireworks on the fourth. I set the 2 boards about 40 feet apart and a small piece of plywood for lighting most of the fireworks in between them. I started lighting small fountains, planes and spinners along with bottle rockets and packs of fireecrackers. I then proceeded onto some small cakes and 4 roman candles ( 2 in each tube on the board), and 3 4 oz. rockets at a time. When my friend showed up with a camcorder to tape the rest of the entertainment, I started lighting bigger cakes and festival balls. I had my brother help me to light 2 96 shot color pearls seperated about 40 feet at the same time. The small finale consisted of the coconut grove song repeater along with 2 white festival balls and a 500 string of firecrackers (I cut the 1000 in half).
lots of kids really liked my small fireworks show and many people had gathered around the clear circular park to see all the different people lighting fireworks. Mine were just as good as many other people there and a lot safer. I got upset when one shell from people across the park exploded on the ground and other people got there fireworks taken away by the cops for putting smoke bombs in garbage cans. The only things the cops said to me was clean up the mess, which I was going to do anyway. 
I was very impressed this year with the small festival balls. The time I lit them before they were weak with small breaks but this year they had pretty large and uniform breaks with nice colors. I also liked the 96 shot color pearl, which had some fairly loud breaks, and 2 at once was quite a nice site. the 25 shot saturn missile battery was nice, with it's whistling tails. Next time, I'd like to get a 100 or 200 shot. Probably my favorite cake was the cobra strike. It has big comets that didn't go too high, but had a nice whistle and was liked by most who saw it. I wasn't too happy with the coconut grove song, which I paid $20 for. I expected more from a cake its size, but it wasn't terrible either.
July fifth was spent in Queens, NY at my cousins where I lit a lot of my leftover items from the fourth including a cobra strike, 96 shot color pearl, 2 dozen bottle rockets, jumping jacks and as a finale 2 festival balls. Another person also brought fireworks that were highlighted by 2 #5 aerial tubes and some big fountains. The aerial tubes didn't have that impressive a break. The noise when it lifted was loud, but it didn't have a large break at all. 
Well, I guess I'll stop right here, as I've probably already went on too long. All in all, it was a great Fourth of July, complete with fun fireworks, family and friends. I'm already planning for next year when hopefully I can make that trip down to Patriotic Fireworks and have an ever better Fourth. Until then, have fun!


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Hey, this 4th of July was my best yet. This year was the first year ever that I have bought myself fireworks, and it was great. I went to Phantom Fireworks in Erie, PA and spent $250.00 on a Tube Finale Assortment, an Uncle Sam Assortment, a pack of M-98's,a pack of Hydro Crackers, a pack of Multi-Color Skyrockets, and I got a free pack of Whistling Moon Travellers because I spent over $100.00!
I had a great time.I lit my fireworks on the night of the 5th,to avoid trouble with cops.My friend blew a mortar to pieces because he loaded the shell in wrong,and he had to light the rest of the shells in an already-lit-off #200 shell tube.I had too much to light in one night,so I still have a lot of stuff left over.
PPPPPPYYYYYYYYRRROOOO
PPPPPPOOOOOWWWWWWEERRRRRRR!!!!!

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I had a great time this year. I started shopping around and scrounging money about a month before the 4th this year. I ended up getting around $400+. We went to fox Island (washington state) and set them off. It was really fun. I bought most of them at the Puyallup Indian reservation. The following is a partial list of what I had. 

Outlaw ( family pack)-great stuff

thunder chief(family pack)awesome

shockwave(family pack)so so..to many fountains 

black cat gattling pack..really powerful roman candles with great affects..would definetly buy again

unleash the beast shells by great grizzly(best single chamber shells imo)

black cat 3rd generation (always a classic) 

the ultimatium (60 shot artillery shell pack..great affects..1,double,triple,and quad chamber shells..along with canister shells)

Goliath(36 shot shell pack with canister,double,and triple chamber shells)..have yet to use

Loyal to none..(GREAT 500 GRAM CAKE!)

The handful(great candles)
banger candles by bc(nice report)
assorted candles(around 30)
dixie whistlers(all time fave bottle rocket black cat bottle rocket(great)
madd dog bottle rocket(so so)
black cat pound rockets (awesome)
roll of 1000 crackers (I loved them..great times) brick of mighty mites(my all time fave cracker) assorted strings of 50-100 crackers..zebra,bc,big apple,great grizzle 

black cat whistling artillery
2 boxes of black cat artillery shells reg 

black cat land of the free cake

there is more but I dont remember the names.. I still have a good amount of this stuff left..Im saving it for new years :) 

All in all a great 4th.

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This year for the fourth of July, I spent it at Lake Sawyer a big lake southeast of Seattle. In 2002 I spent it in Burien, WA which is on the Puget Sound south of Seattle. They don't allow fireworks in Burien, but since it's on the water and I had been going there my whole life I thought it would be ok and it always had been. Unfortunately that was not the case, one of the neighbors contacted the police that were hired to make sure people stayed under control. When the police came they took all of our fireworks. About 5 of us had bought $1,500 dollars worth of fireworks.(95 percent legal in the state, but not where we were.) The only thing cool about the whole experience was that I learned to keep the big stuff away until night, and the bomb squad came. 2003 Was very fun. I spent about $500 myself, but probably got over a $1000 worth because of all the people I took up to my dealer at the muckleshoot reservation . I have to say that my dealer really knows his fireworks, he only gets the best. I planned to do my show at the Lake with my friends dad Fred who is 60. I am 21. He also spent $500, but didn't have nearly the fireworks I did. We used mostly cakes and shells. The shells were all very good. Great Grizzly is still the best. The holiday shells are also very good, they go way up in the air. We started with some class "B" rockets from Vulcan, and the great ball rockets from great grizzly. Both of us had one helper. All four of us were doing shells Fred and his buddy would do a 1 shell each, while Me and my buddy would send up 3 each. The shells all going up at once was awesome. We then started doing cakes Fred had a lot of 500 gram Phoenix cakes and some others, they were good. Most of my cakes were Great Grizzly and some Brothers. After all those cakes were done we got ready to do our Finale. We did 1-thunder king, 2- brothers class "B" cakes, 1- 2.5" salute(it's all I could get), 1- Sky high(awesome), and a couple more class "B" cakes and then about 15 shells all at once. This fourth was awesome. Only one confrontation with the cops, he though we were lighting M-80's in the street. Why do that, when we were on the lake. Happy shooting and be safe. 

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It all started on july3 my dad came home with tons of fireworks we got this one big assorement it was called party pack5 it had a lot of things mostly areils it had about 5 cakes it had a bunch of saturn missles it had a lot we had 250 of them. Anyway are assorment had 1 happy 36
1 warpspeed
1 glatic gla
6 premier atterly shell
6 regular atterly shell
1strobing night parchute
1double day parchute
1 lighting storm
8 ground bloom
80 exploding comrt rockets
12 satellites
and a lot more

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Thanks again to everyone who contributed a story this year. Please contribute again in July 2004.

Keep visiting Fireworksland.com for my newest products and latest additions to my web site!

Happy shooting,
Bob Weaver

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