Happy 4th of July, my American friends

[smeddley]

Don't blow off any fingers!

Here's the story of why I don't light fireworks anymore:

Come back with me to... Lemme think. 4th grade? I think, so... 1983-1984. Yes, I know some of you weren't born, or were just babies. Shut up. This is my story, and I'm old so you have to travel back to my childhood.

We were living in Washington (State), in a town called Tacoma, just outside of Seattle. This was long before Seattle because 'fashionable', you know. We lived on one of the last streets of a subdivision, and there were roads around us but no more houses. So it was a lot like living on a cul-de-sac. Not a lot of traffic, lots of kids, back in the time when you knew your neighbors and all the kids played in the street. (Car!.... Game on!)

So we all gathered to light fireworks one holiday (I don't remember if it was on the 4th or just that week). I was playing with jumping jacks, little tiny firecracker things that jump, spin, and spew out multi-colored sparks (like this). They were old, I guess, and as I bent down to light the fuse, my hair, stupidly unsecured, hung past my face. The fuse on the jack went in a split second and it jumped up into my hair and proceeded to spin and burn out a large chunk right next to my face. Luckily, I had the foresight to bend at the waist so my hair hung out away from my face, so the hair was the only casualty (that was painful enough, oh the smell of burning hair!). And, luckily, they don't last long, though it seemed like a very long time to have a flaming thing suspended inches from your face.

I still enjoy a good professional display, but I'm no longer inclined to set off a bunch myself.

So take care, and stay safe!

Comments

[revoked-soul.livejournal.com]

I still have yet to set off fireworks, so have yet to endanger my hair through any such fiasco.

But! I was walking through the zoo parking lot a few weeks ago, having a cigarette on the way to the main gate, as is my habit. My hands were busy (stroller pushing, searching for Fianna's absent cup of milk, waving off Colum as he demanded to know if I had his membership card and the parking pass...), so my cigarette was hanging out of my mouth.

It was one of those rare occasions when my hair was foolishly unbound. And it was windy. The attempt my hair made to extinguish my cigarette by methods of smothering ended up with me spitting the cigarette as far away from me as I could (which wasn't far because it got caught in my still-blowing hair), and then batting at my hair like a crazy person.

Colum thought it was funny. I spent the next five minutes of walking combing my fingers through my hair just in case I hadn't got all the embers out (as if it would have taken that long to notice...). And the other pedestrians who witnessed this looked less than impressed.

[smeddley.livejournal.com]

See, you should be given a medical exemption for a haircut - it's potentially life-threatening! :D

[oneworldvision.livejournal.com]

My uncle always does a big fireworks display, and one year I was sitting on top of a trailer in the driveway with two of my cousins, one of whom is the baby of the family (though he had to have been at least 9 or 10 at the time). He had his blanket up there to sit on, and one of those fireworks (the kind you're talking about) shot up and landed on top of the trailer. We all jumped down fast enough, but his blanket had a nice round hole in it.

Then, of course, is the annual setting on fire of the tree with one of these (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNF6Q47cmKY). They never learn how to nail it so that it can spin without igniting the board it's nailed to.

[smeddley.livejournal.com]

I can't believe that guy was holding on to it. Was that him saying 'ahhhh!' repeatedly in the video?

[oneworldvision.livejournal.com]

I couldn't tell. It's not my video -- it was just the best one I could find to demonstrate the pinwheel. My cousins nail theirs to a board, which they nail to a tree, which is highly flammable. Hilarity ensues.

[gelsey.livejournal.com]

And thus the reason I won't touch fireworks myself, hate sparklers, and am extremely wary of fire.

[smeddley.livejournal.com]

I swear, more of us were injured with the sparklers and punts then with any of the actual fireworks. Those things are dangerous!

Just a reminder

[ladee-jane.livejournal.com]

I'm quite behind on my comment to this and that's okay because you probably wouldn't want all of your friends to know that we parents decided that punts were too dangerous so we gave you all lit cigarettes to light the fireworks.