Share your funny, exciting, and somehow interesting tales of firework usage.
We just bought a load of fireworks for the first time in two years for this 4th of July, and I can’t wait to set them off! We got quite a many great ones, so we’ll be out there for a while. I’ll share any mishaps if we have any tonight. 
I feel like a real American all of a sudden…:o
this time last year my family went to West Virginia for my little brother’s gymnastics camp. we were in a fairly posh hotel with a golf course and a lake and everything.
on 4th july i went for a little walk (before i could ride) with a bagful of those little balled up gunpowder things that pop when thrown. as i went around the golf course i threw a bunch of them just as people were about to tee off, making them miss terrribly! it was all so hilarious. they were pretty mad.
When I was a kid, we got a hold of some firecrackers. For whatever reason, we thought it was a good idea to light them in the house and flick them out the window… I was 12 or 13 which would explain this stupidity…
anyway… We lit one and before I could flick it out the window, it blew up in hand. That hurt… a LOT… not to mention the ringing ears and general state of shock.
So my Mom comes running in after hearing this and sort of in a panic asks what happened? What was that?
I wasn’t completely out of it, and my friend didn’t want to get in trouble as an accomplice… so of course we denied everything and pretended that nothing happened and that we hadn’t even heard the noise my Mom was so worried about.
Well… for one, my Mom was no idiot… but at 12-13 I sure didn’t realize this. She knew what had happened. For one, we both had a very guilty look about us. For two… there were firecracker bits all over me… my shirt… my hair…everywhere…
Needless to say we didn’t get away with it. But fortunately Mom was more concerned that I was not hurt and figured that I had probably taught myself a better lesson than any scolding possibly could. And I had learned my lesson… it was at least 3 years before I let another firecracker blow up in my hand 
Almost all fireworks are illegal here. Some kiosks sell wuss-ass sparklers, but since it’s soo dry and we have so many fires around here, we go up to Wyoming to smuggle our Roman Candles and bottle rockets back.
New year in the Philippines is quite an explosive time. People spend a LOT of money on fireworks. Money that some of us think could be far better spent. Many pf these fireworks have a distinctly homemade look about them, and the looks are often not misleading. The more noise and mayhem the better, and often as many as a thousand or more black powder triangles are fastened together to form a large mat, which is laid in the road and goes up quite spectacularly, with as many as a thousand mini explosions. Of course Filipinos being Filipinos they add to the danger and these fireworks are often hand held, occasionally with very serious results. The nonchalence with which these fireworks are handled is impressive but scary.
So near to midnight an English friend of mine was walking along the main street in San Pablo, a dual carriageway. Two guys seemed to be lighting a firework on the central reservation. They then lost all the nonchalence and ran away from it. My friend was quite some distance away when the blast nearly took his shirt off and severely messed his hair up. Dynamite!
Add in to all this many guns fired skywards in celebration, and the whole place becomes dangerous. A few years ago my sister’s youngest boy was hit by a returning bullet that came back down to earth. Hurt badly enough to be taken to hospital.
Lunacy!
Nao
a good one
year before last my mate niel just got his first car, he was 17 at the time, so was i, it was bonfire night (5november) not rubbishy 4th july american bonfire night (lol)
i had been drinking (whiskey) for most of the evening and we went to a bonfire in the evening, i had a small box of fireworks in my coat, and i gave the box to the organizers of the bonfire apart from a few rockets and fountains that i put in my coat pockets,
we let the rockets and a few of the fountains go before we got in his car for teh drive home, i thought it would be funny to let one go in the car and then throw it out of the window whilst we drove along.
so i lit the firework while we drove down a quiet section of the road, using my zippo lighter, but i was holding the firework so it was pointing toward my mate driving!
it started to go off with its bright shower of crackles and sliver sparks all over him, he screamed at me to throw it out the window, and i did, (remember i had been drinking for aquite a while by this point) and the wondow was shut, it bounced off and landed between my feet, i reached down to get it (still with it shooting out all over the place,) by this time the car was also filling up with smoke, so i opened the door of the car to throw it out and i nearly fell out of the door myself, but i did manage to get the firework out of the car, it went out shortly after leaving the car,
niel (my mate who was driving) was so worried about the burnign smell as he shared the car with his mum that he went out and brought a garlic bread and left it in the car overnight to get rid of the smell!!!
come to think about it we were really lucky we didnt get seriously hurt!
bungle
incorrect dates
sorry i just realised that a few of the dates on that were wrong,
it was a few years ago not the year before last, he was 18 and i was 18 also.
sorry
hope you enjoyed it though
I just like to go to the beach to use my fireworks. Mostly just roman candles and screamers but some times i get some bottle rockets, ladyfingers, and some of those high pop things(they go up then explode into a shower of sparkely fun)
We used to live on an Indian Reservation. Christmas, New Years, Independance Day, and weeks before and after each of those holidays it was like D-Day mixed with copius amounts of convenience store alchohol.
Thank gawd our current neighborhood has a novel worth of rules, regulations, and nitpickinesses about everything including fireworks.
Anyone else ever gotten in a roman candle fight? I have plenty of times. Just wear some goggles and long sleeves to avoid burns.
yeah i love those…I just get a quiver from my arrows and load it up with thos 10 shot roman candles…Great fun!
When I was a little squirt, I was at a friend’s house lighting off fireworks until we ran out… but our urges were not satisfied. After some searching and scheming, we got the bright idea to fill a soup can with gasoline and set it on fire. It was a brilliant idea until someone knocked the soup can over… the next thing we knew a good portion of my friend’s lawn was on fire. We ran for the garden hose and turned it on, only to discover it was holier than a piece of swiss cheese. There was hardly a trickle that came out the end even if the spigot was opened all the way. I forgot how we managed to put the blaze out but I do remember that was the last of our activities for that evening…
I like to keep bottle rockets as backup… you can run out of roman candle range and still be within bottle rocket range.
My last roman candle fight was at Boreal during a July 4 performance of the Warped Tour. We drove our friend’s RV into the backstage area where a bunch of the performers & roadies were lighting off their caches of fireworks when a fight erupted. We thought it would be a good idea to do a “drive by” by sitting on top of the RV and firing from there while the driver took us by the tour buses. Unfortunately the RV was quickly surrounded and we were sitting ducks. No injuries, but our pride was wounded…
this isnt really a july 4th thing at all, but,
when my dad was about 13 years old or so, he was walking home and somebody lit a firecracker and threw it and it went down his shoe (he was wearing gumboots), insead of blowing up it slowly fizzed, and fizzed on his foot and burnt a hole through his gumboot.
I live in Canada and there are NO firework store (except at canada’s day there are tents with them for sale)… well i useually go to(or threw) the USA for a vacation at least 1 time a year. when ever i do i get stocked up FULL of fire crackers, smoke bombs, ect… i cant belive the amount of explosive for sale in some states HOLY there are like whare house FULL of fireworks and firecrakers!! and some times there is like a few retailers on i intersection!!! its crazy i have like a whole bunch stocked in my room and i getting more on friday when i drive thew the USA… its going to be sweet!!
buy a whole load of them then crush them up mix w/ galosile and ignite w/ a moterised match in a place where there isnt much grass
KABOOM
My dad told me a funny story of how, when he was younger (like my age), he threw a firecracker under the bathroom door to scare my aunt (who was about 15 at the time).
I’m in Pennsylvania right now, and most things are illegal.
However, we bought stuff in Alabama, and “smuggled” it in here.
Yesterday, we were at the park which is right at the bottom of the hill where the big fireworks are set off, and it’s pretty much the town tradition that everyone takes all their illegal fireworks down there, and sets them off before the big ones. This year, we were the only ones with fireworks in that field, and we had big stuff…big artillery shells, big finale packs, loud bottle rockets. It was great.
…or not so funny fireworks stories.
Neighbors were lighting off big booms in their yard at 1:30 a.m. and then again at 3:00 a.m. Since Mary had to get up at 6:00 a.m. to go to work, and because I’m the one who has to live with her on no sleep, I had to make phone calls down to Rochelle’s finest. Sure wish I didn’t have to do things like that but life has to return to normal very quickly after a mid-week holiday.