My town is selling fireworks this week from a tent in the shopping center, which is something I never thought I would see in my lifetime. July 4 is the big fireworks day, but it’s also a day dreaded by fire departments, law enforcement and emergency rooms nationwide because of the problems they create.
Of course I come from the late baby boomer generation, and we swung incense sticks and sparklers around on Independence Day with reasonable care because our parents said that if we burned something they would kill us. And we believed them. We were the take-a-hammer-to-blaster-caps generation, and helicopter parenting was not the emotionally charged war zone it is today in the liberal age, and we came out okay.
But then the world began to get dumber, and responsible fireworks handling (along with responsible parenting and adult common sense) was replaced by excessive caution and bans. At my age now, I see why this is not a bad idea, because the average American is so blase’ about handling cigarettes (which are pretty much miniature lit torches) that they don’t seem phased by an object set aflame and holding explosives with the potential to prematurely go off, maim and kill.
Leave it to the pros? That’s for the pros to say to ruin everybody’s fun, people say.
Every year our pros set up in the high school athletic field for the yearly ritual. They check winds and clearances, follow all the rules and do everything to ensure public safety. Usually debris from the fireworks falls away from anything important, and they’ve cooled off by the time they hit the ground, but once in a while a car gets pelted, or things land on lawns. And of course, every year some animals get the fur scared off them by so much booming and banging, that lost pet recovery runs into the next week.
Funny thing is that I usually find it too hot, muggy or buggy to watch the fireworks outdoors, so I watch the New York display on TV. Not to insult my beloved town, but without children to enjoy it with, the thrill of being out there is gone. But I salute the pros who go out there to make the holiday fun and safe, and I wish everybody a safe time.
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