Memories of Fireworks and Stupidity

Bam! I'm jolted awake from my mid-afternoon coma by a couple of neighbor kids setting off firecrackers Saturday. It seems a bit early, but some people like to get an early start. Ahhhh, childhood!

When I was child, shooting off fireworks, and blowing things up, was just part of the average kid's July 4th celebration. I look back now and suppose at 10 or 11, I was probably a bit too young to be let loose with a bag of explosives. My friends and I did some rather foolish things with fireworks, I have to admit. Thinking back, shooting roman candles at each other was probably not the brightest thing to do, either. I'd put that in about the same category of stupid as hurling lawn darts into the air. How about having a contest to see who could wait the longest before throwing a lighted firecracker? Yeah, we were reckless. But luckily, none of were ever injured or blew off any essential body parts. I'm quite thankful for that.

In many ways, I feel children are far too sheltered these days. However, if I had kids, I certainly wouldn't set them free, without supervision, to discharge fireworks the way I was allowed to. But with a little discretion, there is no reason the young ones can't enjoy putting a bit of color into the evening sky, and scaring the neighbors dog right right out of their yards. July 5, I understand, is one of the busiest days of the year for animal shelters -- small wonder.

Just leave those ultra powerful bombs out your arsenal. You know, those M-80s and the like. I'm not even sure whether or not they still sell those bad boys anymore. I would definitely say that nobody should be messing with that type of fireworks, least of all young kids. Anything that can level a small shack, or blow a VW Beetle into the next block...well, that's just a little too lethal in my book.

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