- Jun 24, 2003
- 29,582
- 12
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Anyone that knows me knows that I love fireworks. Guns, fireworks, cars, computers. Basic guy stuff. It's on the list.
So I head out of Dallas to go find a fireworks stand tonight with a friend of mine. The first place we go is out of fireworks. The next place we go is warehouse style, and they're still out of a lot of stuff. And there are at least 200 people in the store. We had to wait in line 30 minutes to buy our measly $400 worth of fireworks.
I remember reading some articles saying that fireworks sales were expected to boom this year, on account of all the burn bans last year. But I've never seen anything like this before.
So we get out to the designated firework area, pay our $10 and go in. This park, which is constructed just for firework use, is basically a "tree" of roads so that they can pack cars in. And I've never seen it so packed. Probably around 1000 people out there. Heavy traffic in and out. This park is also surrounded by a moat, and staffed by firefighters.
Anyway, we start launching some mortars, playing with the various small stuff and having a good time. We are packed in with less than 10 feet between one group of people and the next. There's non-stop fireworks going off everywhere. There are kids walking around with sparklers, frighteningly close to our piles of fireworks.
I was very wary of being around so many people acting irresponsibly with their fireworks, but we tried to make the best out of it.
Then the first injury of the night was a doozy. Something happened to a mortar tube a couple rows back from us, and the next thing you know, a 2" shell comes flying horizontally, and blows up at ground level about 15 feet behind us. I matrix style dodged a bright green burning ember. Unfortunately for the 15 year old girl about 4 feet from the explosion, there was no dodging. She was badly burned, and off to the hospital she went in an ambulance.
After her family leaves, some douchebag kids wearing baggy clothes and those goofy flat billed hats show up. I can immediately tell they're jackasses. When they go out in the field, they start having roman candle fights. I tell my friend to watch them, because it's coming. After they'd shot about 3 roman candles each, one of them blew right next to one of the kid's head. He went down screaming. He got back up though, and went and sat in their truck for the rest of the night.
I had several different types of fireworks almost nail me. And actually have a couple of burns on my tshirt from near misses.
Easily the most dangerous 4th of July event I've ever been to. But it sure was fun. God I love fireworks.
So I head out of Dallas to go find a fireworks stand tonight with a friend of mine. The first place we go is out of fireworks. The next place we go is warehouse style, and they're still out of a lot of stuff. And there are at least 200 people in the store. We had to wait in line 30 minutes to buy our measly $400 worth of fireworks.
I remember reading some articles saying that fireworks sales were expected to boom this year, on account of all the burn bans last year. But I've never seen anything like this before.
So we get out to the designated firework area, pay our $10 and go in. This park, which is constructed just for firework use, is basically a "tree" of roads so that they can pack cars in. And I've never seen it so packed. Probably around 1000 people out there. Heavy traffic in and out. This park is also surrounded by a moat, and staffed by firefighters.
Anyway, we start launching some mortars, playing with the various small stuff and having a good time. We are packed in with less than 10 feet between one group of people and the next. There's non-stop fireworks going off everywhere. There are kids walking around with sparklers, frighteningly close to our piles of fireworks.
I was very wary of being around so many people acting irresponsibly with their fireworks, but we tried to make the best out of it.
Then the first injury of the night was a doozy. Something happened to a mortar tube a couple rows back from us, and the next thing you know, a 2" shell comes flying horizontally, and blows up at ground level about 15 feet behind us. I matrix style dodged a bright green burning ember. Unfortunately for the 15 year old girl about 4 feet from the explosion, there was no dodging. She was badly burned, and off to the hospital she went in an ambulance.
After her family leaves, some douchebag kids wearing baggy clothes and those goofy flat billed hats show up. I can immediately tell they're jackasses. When they go out in the field, they start having roman candle fights. I tell my friend to watch them, because it's coming. After they'd shot about 3 roman candles each, one of them blew right next to one of the kid's head. He went down screaming. He got back up though, and went and sat in their truck for the rest of the night.
I had several different types of fireworks almost nail me. And actually have a couple of burns on my tshirt from near misses.
Easily the most dangerous 4th of July event I've ever been to. But it sure was fun. God I love fireworks.
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