Its a big deal here in the neibourhood. Fire works are kinda funny here. You can buy anything you want.. and I mean anything. They have very large retailers ( outside of city limits ) and you sign a piece of paper stating you are not going to light them off in Idaho.. As if

I live out in the country for the most part, and everyone in the neibourhood has 1 or two acers. We go to the folks behind us ( the one and only time I do anything with these people a year) and they proceed to blow up about 1,000 bucks worth of whatever. People who say " they don't make em like they used too" are wrong. They make stuff now thats off the map. How somebody has not been hurt is beyond me. A couple of years ago, somebodys kid took a mortor round, a big one.. set it down on the drive way without the tube and touched it off. I could not hear for a week.

When I was a kid, good fireworks were hard to get. They had to be imported for the most part from Wyoming. However, they could be had if you knew where to go. There is a town named Notus, that had a reputation for selling " under the counter to the right people". We would get somebodys older brother to take us out there. It was just like a drug deal.. danger.. suspence.. illeagle. To a 12 year old, it was as cool as it gets. You would go into this place ( Moores grocery) and ask for Bud the owner. He would come out and you would say " got any fireworks" and he would say sure and point you to a table with sparklers and crap right out in sight. Then you would ask him " got any better stuff" and he would reply " what makes you think I do ?? who told you I did ?? " I mean it was like buying a kilo of coke. He would take you into the clothing store next door and into a back room, where the holy grail of all fireworks were stored. We would have maybe 10 bucks to spend and it took an hour to decide what we wanted. he would get pissed. One thing stands out. Back in the day, there were 50 different kinds of fire crackers. Now there are like 3. I suppose they were all pretty much the same, but in our minds each one had a different quality. We would spend hours picking the strings apart, and for a week before the 4th we would light them off one at a time. I have had a bunch go off in my hand trying to get them to go off in the air.

The only thing that we used to get that I have not seen in 35 years is a true to life Cherry bomb. Those things rocked. They could shake the windows for a block. The 4th used to be a big day, right up there with Christmas. These days its a pain in the ass because you usually have to work the next morning.