phosfate: Ouroboros painting closeup (Default)
[personal profile] phosfate
So the barrage starts last night at 12:01, mainly wistling rockets, and later these new things they have that sound like cats being launched (unsuccessfully) into space - "MEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWW--POP!POP!POP!" But it's no worse than the vibrating rap music cars we normally get in the wee hours, so I fall asleep eventually.

Until.

"Ann?" Oh Christ, it's 3:00 a.m. "Come look at something."

"What?"

"I heard something."

All righty. I pad after her into the backyard. She's got her little Coleman lantern, which I hope is doing a good job of illuminating my face, since she insists of pointing the damn thing at me and blinding me. "What did you hear?"

"I thought it was rain, but it's not raining. Then it sounded like somebody was cutting the scr--" "MEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWW--POP!POP!POP!"

Like that you mean?

"There! Did you hear that?"

"It's fireworks."

"Are you sure?"

"They went on sale at midnight. They've been going off all night."

"Well, I hadn't heard any!"

I refrain from punching her in the face. That lantern looks kind of heavy. Instead, in my best John Hillerman, "I'm going to bed."

Five minutes later: "MEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWW--POP!POP!POP!" Sound of footsteps. There's a creak and a presence in the doorway.

I don't even open my eyes. "It's. Fireworks."

"Are you sure?"

"It's. Fireworks."

"...Okay."

"MEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWW--POP!POP!POP!"

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 06:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] charlotteismad.livejournal.com
*comforts*
Poor Ann...
Do people do that al the time in America? Fireworks, I mean.

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 06:55 am (UTC)
ext_6373: A swan and a ballerina from an old children's book about ballet, captioned SWAN! (Default)
From: [identity profile] annlarimer.livejournal.com
No. Tomorrow's Independence Day. Most places, it's the only time fireworks are allowed at all.

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 07:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] undone27.livejournal.com
Here in America, we have two big fireworks days- New Year's and Independence Day (Fourth of July). Yea, verily, portable buildings of uncertain vintage are placed up on cinder blocks in parking lots, their signs blinking something appropriate, like "Crazy Bill's!" or "Uncle Sam's", or my personal favorite, because a friend of mine owned this particular shack, "Insane McCain's!" Inside is a collection worthy of an ammo dump. Up until recently, the bomb of choice has been the M-80, which I have been told is equivalent to a quarter stick of dynamite. Bulk packages start at $25 and go up to $400. Most larger towns prohibit the public from buying fireworks, but that doesn't stop folks from buying boxes of bottle rockets and sparklers. Sparklers, by the way, have the selling point that they are "safe for the kiddies". Bullshit. It is a stick dipped in a potassium salt, that is ignited and can reach a temperature of 1800 degrees F. Whee!
So, what you do is you buy a shitload of explosives and start setting them off preferably the weekend before the Fourth, so that you have as much time as possible to annoy your neighbors!

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 07:18 am (UTC)
ext_6373: A swan and a ballerina from an old children's book about ballet, captioned SWAN! (Default)
From: [identity profile] annlarimer.livejournal.com
Bottle rockets are no longer legal in our town, alas - some stupid thing about accidents and fires. Pansies. My brothers and sisters used to have massive bottle rocket fights.

My personal favorite was the subtler Stinky Yellow Smoke Bomb. Light a few, put them in the milk box, and wait for someone else to open it.

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 07:56 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] finabair.livejournal.com
Smoke bombs rock! I really liked the snakes, too. Those and caps were the only things of this type that were legal in my town, growing up. Even sparklers were outlawed, so we had to light those in the backyard where the cops couldn't easily see them. Er, I mean...we couldn't have them. At all.

I remember in later years going to my aunt's to light off *real* fireworks.

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 07:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] finabair.livejournal.com
Back when I was a kid, the "fun thing" was to aim one's assorted fireworks for the roof of the perpetually drunk guy who liked to come out of his house and threaten people in the park with his shotgun.

I used to just hide a lot and pretend I didn't know anyone and hope he didn't actually go off, and laugh when he called the cops because some kids were playing 'basketball' in the park. The actual sport they were playing was volleyball, and I'm pretty sure either would have been legal in all 50 states, but basketball is notoriously difficult on grass.

I think the "Safe for kiddies" point to sparklers is that they don't explode and take off the kiddies' hands, and they don't move of their own volition so that you can't be sure where they'll go next. It's amazing how fast one's parents can move when a rocket-type firework starts to tip over just as it goes off and nearly takes off their heads.

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 08:55 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
The best sign for a fireworks store that I've seen on the interstate was in Kentucky or Tennessee: "Nervous Charlie's -- Beer, Gasoline, Fireworks".

--Gail

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 06:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] viedma.livejournal.com
ah, to be woken up to hear the joyful noise that has been keeping you up all night-- that's America.

do you remember when people sort of let off the fireworks mostly on July 4th? i'm beginning to think i imagined it.

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 06:56 am (UTC)
ext_6373: A swan and a ballerina from an old children's book about ballet, captioned SWAN! (Default)
From: [identity profile] annlarimer.livejournal.com
When I was little we got 'em for a whole week before the Fourth. We also got our asses kicked if we set them off after 10:00 p.m.

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 08:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] renn.livejournal.com
At least it was just fireworks and not gunshots, too! We got gunshots all the time w/ fireworks when we lived one town over from where we do now.

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 09:02 am (UTC)
ext_6373: A swan and a ballerina from an old children's book about ballet, captioned SWAN! (Default)
From: [identity profile] annlarimer.livejournal.com
We never hear the gunshots. People tend to murder each other indoors 'round here.

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 09:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] renn.livejournal.com
Ah! Much more civilised, if you ask me!

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 11:22 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] amilyn.livejournal.com
I had no idea until 2 years or so ago that people did shoot off guns in celebration. Whar ah comes frum, we's only shot off guns fer target practice and then to shoot Bambi an' his friends....

Husband and I lived in a crappy neighborhood in our apartment-before-the-house, and we were amazed on New Year's in Y2K to find that our neighbors were even better armed than us hicks. Of course, the shooting of the 25-round-clip (which is, may I add, illegal, and not just inside the city where ALL handguns are illegal, let alone the high-round clips...) and all its similar bits did explain the City Planner (or whoever the mayoral assistant was) going on the news and making what I thought was the most delightful public statment I heard regarding Y2K: "And, at midnight on New Year's, gravity will continue to operate, so we request that you refrain from that kind of celebration."

As a rural hick in my upbringing, we shot off fireworks, but only "out"--meaning far away from other ...drat...what are "Einwohner" auf Englisch?...people-what-lived-near. Fortunately, my nearest neighbors were over 1/10 mile away (you can see, when the trees are bare, and if you count bits of roofs, approximately 6 houses from my mom's house...if you looks really, really hard out every window), so we were "out". My grandfather's house had even fewer folks nearby.

I had not the foggiest notion that people would actually set off fireworks near populated areas.....well, at least not anything beyond the snakes, little snap-crackers, and sparklers. Roman candles? Bottle rockets? Near where someone lives? Weird. And now folks have been doing that in my neighborhoods in these densely populated areas. Wow.

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 09:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] theredwitch.livejournal.com
Ahahaha I love fireworks. Especially the noisy ones. Alas, Canada day is over and they've stopped here.

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 10:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] charlotteismad.livejournal.com
I hate fireworks so so so much. EVIL.

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 11:20 am (UTC)
ext_6373: A swan and a ballerina from an old children's book about ballet, captioned SWAN! (Default)
From: [identity profile] annlarimer.livejournal.com
I don't mind them, but they drive some of the poor doggies bugfuck.

(no subject)

Date: 2002-07-03 11:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] charlotteismad.livejournal.com
I'm one of those really weird people that has fucking odd phobias like fireworks and other even more weirdy things...

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