Fireworks

Photo by Caleb Bennetts on Unsplash

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It’s time to celebrate when it comes to The Fourth of July! It’s also called Independence Day and July 4^th. Families gather together and enjoy a picnic. Think of the foods you get to enjoy like hamburgers, hot dogs, macaroni salad, potato salad, and watermelon. You get to dress up in your favorite red, white and blue attire.

If your town or city is having a parade, I say go for it. I used to go to the parade in the city I lived in. I tried to go every year. Parades are held with everyone dressing in patriotic gear. You can usually catch a band or two playing to their hearts content down the road. You might even hear a gun salute. And that can get very loud, especially if they do it right next to you. The Melbourne Municipal Band (Florida) plays on a unique stage. Their stage is hooked onto the back of a pickup truck. You’ll see the photo below. I couldn’t describe it without the photo.

2010 July Fourth Parade, Band, Photo by Matt Murray

Fireworks stands are abundant. You’ll be driving down the road and see a tent set up on the side of the road. They have fireworks of all kinds including sparklers, firecrackers, bottle rockets and everything you can think of. Most of the fireworks in Florida are illegal. The only ones that are legal are: sparklers, fountains, and novelties. People in Florida who buy these products have to sign a waiver form that says they are farmers who need these fireworks to ward off wild animals or to scare off birds. Ha! Ha! How they ever thought this rule was good, I don’t know. I don’t think the average citizen that goes there is a farmer. But that is one of the loopholes.

And they love to fire off fireworks. And it’s not only on the holidays either. They’ll shoot them off days prior and days after.

They are so loud and can scare the heck out of you. It infuriates cats and dogs too. I’ve heard of pets running under people’s beds and hiding. They even make a vest that is supposed to keep animals calm during fireworks related explosions.

Fireworks can get out of hand. You never know when a person may become injured while handling fireworks. There’s been countless stories over the years where people have blown off fingers and hands. The fire department does demonstrations showing what could happen to you if something goes wrong.

When I lived in an apartment many years ago, there was a neighbor who shot off a bottle rocket. He was standing in the parking lot between two apartment buildings. It didn’t go as he planned and it headed right for the roof of our building. I was watching out the window when he shot it off. He looked worried when it hit the roof. I was worried too. I couldn’t sleep all night thinking that the roof might catch fire. He stopped doing it after that.

Once I moved to the Cedar Run subdivision, there were countless times that people were shooting off fireworks. You could hear it all over the neighborhood. Not just in our subdivision but in the subdivisions to the north and south. Big booms would go off and you’d wonder what kind of fireworks they had.

This next part is the continuation of the series I call “The Characters of Cedar Run”.

There was a guy who lived next to C, who you heard about in “The Van Guy” and “Trapped! Now What?”. One Fourth of July, he decided it would be fun to shoot off fireworks. This was the only time he had ever done this.

He wasn’t the only one shooting them off. The firefighter boyfriend of the woman across the street was doing it too.

Our local police told the public they would be out in force finding the people that were committing this illegal act and ticketing them.

The booms were so loud, it was driving my elderly Mom nuts. It was hard on her and we imagined the other older people on the street too.

I knew the police were in the area, and I called them to tell them where it was coming from. They sat at the end of the street to catch them in the act because they have to see it to ticket them. Within about 30 seconds after they set them off again, a police car pulled up. As I watched through the window (being careful not to be noticed), I saw the officer issue them some tickets.

Conclusion

It doesn’t pay to shoot off fireworks. There are so many things that can go wrong. People have to know that they may cause harm to other people. If you hit a house and it catches fire, bad things could happen.

While living in the condo, I have seen a number of fireworks go off in our complex. Being on the third floor I can see north and east. I can see all kinds of fireworks displays by the common person. I don’t need to fight traffic and go to the big fireworks displays that the cities put on.

Until next time, happy reading!

-Matt