Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler My other obession: Fireworks

very cool!

Nice show!

It's half illegal there, you just need to talk to the right people to get a permit. But...I still ran into some issues with some cops...but that's another story

No thanks. I try not to invite the law over for any reason. Plus fireworks isn't really any big deal to my old a$$.

Nice Fireworks display Dan. That show would have got me a big a$$ fine, or worse in this neck of the woods. Looks like you guys had a great time though. Thanks for sharing.

Awesome!! How did the neighbors take it?

For some odd reason, while watching the finale, the old sit-com theme song from "Love, American Style" popped into my head.

Oops. I think I just gave away my age. LOL

Scott

It's OK, Scott.

Unless you're fantasizing about Jo Anne Worley. Then it's not.

Dan, that's a fracking impressive finale for over the counter fireworks! I happened to be in Atlanta this 4th, and their finale was relatively disappointing compared to what you put up!

Not bad at all Dan! It is nice to see others who like to put on a show and not just shoot some firework every couple of minutes.

My last show was 10 years ago (I still have my embroidered shirt) when my parents used to put on a big 4th of July bash. That was also my 10th year of shooting off fireworks. The first year's budget was something like $250 that I shot all myself and I would drive 5 hours to Indiana to get some 'deals'... The last year we shot off over $6,000 in fireworks paid for mainly by myself and my dad, but we always had about 75 people at the bash and most of them chipped in. There were 4 of us hand firing a majority of it, and a 5th person reloading mortar tubes. I had several cake boards like you were shooting, and a big finally close to what you did (I think that you shot off more shells due to the larger number of cakes, where I shot off a good number of mortar tubes as well).

Things have changed so much since then. There were no such thing in consumer fireworks as "Z Cakes" (ones that fire back and forth) as they all just shot straight up.

I have been itching to put on a show again, but I now live in the middle of Iowa, so it would take some driving to get fireworks and take them to my parent's house in Illinois. The live in a small 5 house neighborhood outside of city limits by a couple of miles. When I checked on a permit, I was told that I actually didn't need one. I checked with the city which said that they didn't have any jurisdiction, checked with the county who didn't have any laws about it, and checked with the state police and they said that the only law for where they lived was a noise disturbance law, and the officer actually just recommended that we just invite all of the neighbors to cover that part.

We did have the police show up still, but they were the city cops who came out, admitted that they couldn't and didn't really care to stop us, but wanted to let us know that we were stopping traffic on the highway a little over a mile away and that if anyone else called about the stopped traffic the state troopers would get involved. They told us that we had at least 30 minutes, which was more than enough since we were pretty much ready to light off the finally.

You brought back some great memories Dan. Maybe next year (assuming I am finally employed again) I'll do another show. This time at my sister's house (in eastern Iowa) as she lives near a city cop and a state trooper out in the middle of nowhere and they were shooting off stuff this year. Plus, my uncle is the major of the city and he'd be there to help cover that basis as well.

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm glad I could bring back great memories for you nick. Check your PM ;).

The sad part of it all is that consumer fireworks can be MUCH more impressive than professional fireworks. Why? Because for the same price you can get a lot more breaks for the dollar. Comparatively, the effects and quality of consumer stuff doesn't really come close (compare one consumer burst to a professional burst, the professional looks much better). However, the unique effects and the close proximity to the fireworks gives the audience a personal attachment to the show.

Problem is, pro fireworks can be seen for miles around since they go much higher, consumer stuff not so much. It's really awesome when you can mix the two...combination of quality and quantity.