Was 8 or 9 and family was all sitting infront of the garage watching me light stuff. Lit one of those lil saturn rockets. Started up straight, made a sharp right hand turn , headed right at the garage. My 83 y/o grandma sees it coming and flips her chair over backwards while trying to duck it.
Classic.
Oh and used to blow up toads with blackcats. [Reply]
I mowed yards for a summer job one year and took some of my earnings and bought a wide assortment of fireworks. Come July 3rd or 4th, I don't really remember, I started shooting off the fireworks, but I was way to close to the container that I had the fireworks in and part of a punk or fuse fell off into the box of fireworks. The majority of the fireworks ended being shot off in a very short period of time. I dove to the ground for cover and crawled away very quickly.
I was probably 10 - 11 years old when this happened. To this day 30+ years after the fact, my parents and siblings still bring it up around the 4th. It is comical to look back and remember, but at the time it happened, it was quite sad. [Reply]
Only thing remotely funny that happened was when I was at my buddys house, and we were lighting black cats. Well they light one on my back which did nothing (I thought), and my back started to burn a little because it had lit my shirt on fire.
Then I took refuge in his house when one of his "friends" decided to bring a crap load of PBR, and give it to everyone doing the fireworks and after I got hit with a little rocket I went inside and left. I don't drink, I don't make a big deal about it, but when someone is mixing that with the big fireworks we had in store for that night, I will pass on being around that. [Reply]
We used to have "Bomb Bag" parties. We'd all pool together a bunch of fireworks and put them in a brown paper bag. Douse the bag with lighter fluid and light it and watch the mayhem insue! I got nailed in the gut one year with a parachute that was in the bag. Burned a hole in my shirt. Fun times back then. We've all grown up and out of that phase. [Reply]
When I was in the 7th grade, my best friend and I de-sticked a gross of bottle rockets, arranged them in a circle, fuses in, then lit it up and ran. It was like a battleground or something. Not too smart, but lots of fun. [Reply]
8 yrs old, we were using needle nose pliers to cut open Black Cats for the powder in to tin foil to make a "larger" black cat. Found one of the cut open pieces and figured, "Hey, I'll pretend I'm smoking a cigarette." Apparently we didn't get the gun powder out of this particular piece. Needless to say with the back end clamped shut with the pliers, I lit the bugger and within seconds heard this loud "BANG!" and my ears were ringing and lips were numb. I ran in to the bathroom and looked like a Tom and Jerry cartoon with a big black blast mark where it sat in my lips. Luckily no damage other than some burns. To this day I think through VERY carefully all of my plans. [Reply]
Years ago, when I was just a kid growing up in OPKS, we used to throw 4th of July parties at our house- the entire family and neighborhood would arrive. Our house was nestled along a private country club and beyond the backyard was the fairway of the golf course where the country club would launch their fireworks.
A couple of buddies of mine and I sauntered over to where they were launching the works and decided to watch them. Back then, they just bore holes in the ground and put a pipe in to launch the displays. We all sat underneath this giant oak tree by the bank of the creek. It was cool watching these guys work the display for the crowd. Well, somewhere during the middle of the show, I was watching one of the guys having trouble while another guy ran over to light his and then next thing I know- they bumped each other and I think it caused one of the displays to move. When it fired out of the ground, it came right at our tree and blew up right over our heads.
I'll never, ever forget that freakin' sound. OMG was that ever loud. I couldn't hear for hours. Anyways sparks just showered us completely and we were getting tiny burns everywhere on our body and hair. Scared the crap out of us as we thought we were all going to go up in flames. But, we immediately rolled over a few times on the ground and walked back to the party in tears. [Reply]
