I come from a country (South Africa) where fireworks were never a big cultural "thing". The 5th of November (Guy Fawkes Night) was celebrated as a sort of hangover from colonial days, but not in a big way. Dad would buy a small box of mixed fireworks, and us kids would wave sparklers enthusiastically while Roman Candles and small rockets lit up the sky over the garden - but it wasn't that big a deal to us. It was almost exclusively a family affair, with few or no public displays of fireworks. We didn't spend the rest of the year breathlessly waiting for the next round of bangs, booms and zooms.
Thus, when I came to this country, I was taken aback by the enthusiasm shown by almost everyone, adults and kids alike, at the prospect of converting large sums of money into smoke and (particularly) noise. I can do that on a shooting range and get some useful practice out of it, but just blowing paper, cardboard and powder into the sky? It simply doesn't do much for me. Last weekend, when the town we live in held its annual July 4th fireworks display a little early, I didn't even bother to go out and look. I did some writing at my desk, comforted the cats (who were being driven frantic by the excessive noise) and endured as patiently as possible until it was over. I know some (a lot?) of my friends here can't figure that out. To them, this is a highlight of the civic year, and the more noise we make, the better. Well, I'm glad they enjoy it.
Something I could never figure out was the seemingly immense number of small fireworks stalls and outlets along the sides of local roads. Within a couple of miles radius of my home there are at least five, all operating seasonally for major celebrations like July 4th. A couple of weeks before the day they'll open their doors, and close them again a week afterwards, reverting to their usual status of derelict old shipping containers and garden sheds, locked up until next time. I wondered how on earth their owners could make a living off such haphazard businesses . . . until I read Mr. B's explanation.
One of the guys that hangs around the airport works for an FBO….and his side job is managing at a Fireworks Outlet.
He was telling us that their market research tells them that the average customer spends nearly 820 dollars for the Independence Day holiday….And their average customer is on welfare or other government assistance, has 4 children, and gets some form of housing subsidy. They nearly all live below the poverty line.
Yet, oddly, they have enough money for fireworks.
He also said that the year they gave out Covid subsidy checks was the best year ever for the business.
There's more at the link.
The average customer spends $820 for Independence Day celebrations? I don't know if that's for food and drinks as well as fireworks, but even so, ye gods and little fishes! Those fireworks are over and above the bigger displays put on by almost all cities, towns and villages all over the country. Around this time of year, you could fly over rural northern Texas and think you were having a flashback to World War II, with every town in sight trying to shoot down everything passing overhead!
I'm sorry. I must be holiday-spirit-deficient in some way, because the thought of that much money being blown sky-high at this time of year - when many, many people are finding it so hard to make ends meet - is just . . . weird.
Peter
34 comments:
I might take that "market research" with a grain of salt.
If you like explosions,
See my cousin Roger Boom...
Whenever we're in Chemistry
we give him lots of room...
Hey, at least we don't shoot our guns up into the sky, unlike how some of our new arrivals do on January 1st. :)
Fireworks are legal where I live and many of my neighbors go completley nuts with them on the 4th. I just pull a lawn chair out on the driveway and don't spend a dime. Scares the hell out of all the neighborhood dogs.
I've never cared much for fireworks displays either.
I've gone to them of course when family wanted to. If left to my own devices though I don't bother.
This year our small MN town has decided to forgo it's annual firework display as it's running at a budget deficit. I'm glad they made this decision. Even a small town's 10-20 minute firework professional show costs upwards of $30,000.
I align as fully with John Adams' sentiment as any patriot, but I feel no need to burn that kind of money on fireworks myself when there are plenty of neighbors willing to do so, let alone municipal displays that are readily available.
Happy Independence Day!!
The funniest part about those pop-up fireworks stores around here (many are in commercial tents, not even structures)... they are only permitted when used for fundraising for non-profits. Every town has one for the local Volunteer Fire Company. The fire dept.. sponsoring fireworks. Now wait a minute!
Yeah, what libertyman said. I'm sceptical of both the $ amount and the welfare thing.
I live right on the edge of the hood in Tallahassee (Frenchtown is the hood, founded by the Marquess de Lafayette). The fireworks don't stop for days, especially the mortors. I'm talking about tens of thousands of $'s. It is a warzone.
Unless you live in New Orleans.
John in Indy
On the one hand, I think they are playing fast and loose with "average" there. Family used to have a cabin on a lake. Rich people moved in over the years, and would shoot off fireworks over the lake every 4th. We never bought any, because you could just sit down on the shore and wait for everybody else to blow off their tens of thousands of dollars of semi-illegal purchased-across-the-state-line mortars. Best show in town, once you factor in the crowds and parking and traffic involved in the municipal fireworks.
On the other hand...
Poor people are dumb (on average), and I wouldn't instantly discount that hearsay. Someone who works for the local school system told me that the schools in low-income areas here experience a large amount of student transfers all at once, every autumn. This coincides with the county fair: low-income families will blow their whole paycheck on taking their kids to the fair, then fail to pay the rent and get evicted, move to another low-rent neighborhood, and have to transfer the kids to another school.
We are low-income by choice, so we can homeschool our kids (because even with two incomes, we could not afford a good school district!). We live in a sort of sketchy low-rent neighborhood, and we are extremely careful with money, saving to buy a house so we can get out of rental hell. And we drive the crappiest-looking cars on our street. We are literally surrounded by dumb schmucks driving brand-new shiny cars, who count on getting evicted for rent non-payment every couple of years.
Does. Not. Compute.
Sometime, look up video of the new year's fireworks in Lima, Peru.
"Something I could never figure out was the seemingly immense number of small fireworks stalls and outlets along the sides of local roads. Within a couple of miles radius of my home there are at least five, all operating seasonally for major celebrations like July 4th. A couple of weeks before the day they'll open their doors, and close them again a week afterwards"
Ha. We have three or four year-round fieworks stores around here. And the seasonal pop-up still manage to do decent business. People blow off fireworks year-round, but seriously peak on the Fourth.
Average $820 seems pretty high, even around here. But there is one family in my neighborhood that easily spent a grand for the Fourth. But they slacked off the past couple of years.
Having worked at Disneyland, I have to admit that I'm more than a little jaded when it comes to fireworks.
I find it hard to believe, $820 per person?
Maybe if they are calculating the taxes used for public firework shows. I've lived in some small communities that used a sizeable chunk of their coffers to fund an enormous fireworks show every year.
This was in an effort to bring in tourist money; though I'm not sure how well that worked out for them.
Grew up in the 'burbs in a state with a lot of restrictions on fireworks. Thought sparklers were great fun when visiting cousins out of state. Enjoyed fireworks on the capitol grounds before it became a big thing - we'd just set up lawn chairs and lay out blankets; plenty of space back in the '60s. Our kids grew up in Texas mostly watching the local displays from our upstairs windows, and we avoided the crowds and the traffic.
Now reside in a state with lots of those seasonal fireworks stands. Since we live way out in the woods on lots of acreage, I doubt we will hear or see much of anything (as long as no one sets the woods on fire). No longer have the patriotism or desire to 'celebrate' anything about the simulacrum of America in which we now live.
"Ye gods and little fishes"
My newest Favorite Phrase!
Fireworks are legal here too, so many people buy their own and set off in the yard, or a parking lot. Many towns set off a bunch too. One town has a tradition of a midnight pots & pans parade. Apparently in the 40s they couldn’t afford fireworks, so the people were invited to come make noise on Main St.
Southern NH
just my very humble opinion:
I think it's the same people who blow out their (car's) muffler and/or ride their bikes down a residential street at zero dark hundred
"The Importance of Being Noticed"
If you want booms and sparkles, you can always volunteer for an active action somewhere
And damned few of those fireworks junkies could answer 10 questions about Independence Day or any other aspect of American history.
I love watching fireworks. And they're kind of fun to set off.
But $800 or more? Really? We earn a fairly comfortable living, but I don't think we've ever spent more than a small fraction of that amount. And now that our kids are grown and flown, we just watch our neighbor's displays.
I agree with Peter - if I'm going to spend *that* much, I'd rather go to the range. You can still buy a fair amount of ammo and range time for that much!
Got all the fireworks action I've ever needed 'June '66 to July '67. The occasional sound of a fire fight from certain quadrants of the city will catch my attention however.
My theory, which is also my personal outlook:
On July 4, we celebrate several different things all at once. It includes Paul Revere, and the events of April 1775, the Declaration of Independence, which was really a declaration of war, the events of the War of 1812, and really, every war since then.
All of those events involved pyrotechnics. The fireworks we use today mimic those more martial and practical munitions.
I appreciate the visual and sensory aspects of a good fireworks show. I still remember my favorite show, where I was literally underneath a professional display.
Many people dislike our National Anthem, but I find it inspiring, especially so when you know the backstory. Francis Scott Key was held on a British ship during a key battle of the War of 1812, and there was some doubt whether the nation he knew and loved would survive. Much depended on the very battle he watched overnight. Every moment was fraught with danger; not to himself, but to the very society he was a part of.
So he wrote:
O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Having said all that, it's stupid to burn money (beyond pocket change) on personal fireworks. But many poor people are poor because they're stupid.
My former USMC son was a mortar gunner and light machine gunner in the 2000s. He got mortared in Iraq during a couple of all expense paid visits there via Uncle Sam in 2006 and 2008. He does not like fireworks at all now. But he still loves machine guns, he would really like to own a M-2 which he has shot hundreds of rounds through.
Back in the day in Durban in a different life lived by a different very young person in a long-lost world, Cleo the Dog was *not* a fan of backyard fireworks.
The Japanese get it. Fireworks are about fleeting beauty on a summer's eve. Not about lots of bangs and flashes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biop-xp9WPE
Google Nagaoka Fireworks Festival for more.
The Chinese go for the More is Better approach in public fireworks displays. Private firework fun is illegal in Hong Kong, but every village in the New Territories becomes a mini Sarajevo at Chinese New Year or whenever there's a wedding.
In response to JustPeachy's comment:
Yup. Though far from the only cause, a fair percentage of the long-term poor are poor because of consistently poor decisions and choosing instant gratification over long-term benefits.
Including, alas, all too many members of my extended family. For a long, long time - decades - I had the highest income and oldest, least impressive car at any family get-together. We had a real budget we stuck to for Christmas and birthday gifts, too.
There are far more people living paycheck to paycheck than need to, if they were just a little better at budgeting and deferring gratification. I sometimes think that "Home Economics" - how to budget, how to minimize expenses, how to plan for future expenses and live within your means - should be a required class for High School graduation. Or being able to vote.
BobF, July 3, 2024 at 1:33 PM : "And damned few of those fireworks junkies could answer 10 questions about Independence Day or any other aspect of American history."
YMMV. Around here, if you start a conversation about American history you're likely to get a lecture on how the Fourth is sure fun but the real Independence Day is the Second. And it might be coincidence... But I heard more fireworks yesterday than today. The night's young though.
As much as I like fireworks I haven't been setting them off for years, since my grandnieces moved away. With usual neighborhood displays, mine would be redundant. And Winnie -- our dog -- doesn't like them at all: the first distinct boom and she was on my bed wanting me to protect her.
Labs shouldn't been wimps, but her ears ARE more sensitive than mine.
@Javahead: hear hear! And congrats on being the guy in your family who bucked the trend.
I don't think my neighbors are spending $820 this year, but they're definitely spending more than they can afford!
Here in Md., we get the small stands, too, but the law only allows sparklers and fountains, thereby creating a "forbidden fruit" situation for anything that goes "BOOM".. from little flashlight crackers up to good size rockets and mortars. Phantom Fireworks Co. is just across the PA. Border, for the out of state crowd (the stuff's illegal for Pennsylvanians, ok for out of state residents. Go figure.) I've always enjoyed them, but never spent THAT kind of money on them, unless inflation has struck that market, too.a few buddy's would pool some dough, get a catalog and send a couple worthies north with a shopping list and the money. We had fun, and followed the 4 Rules closely. Powder monkey's doing the shooting stayed sober til we were done!
This is nothing. I lived on the island of Bonaire for seven years and every New Years the populace would launch the most incredible display of fireworks from every dirt street and paved lane where more than two families lived. It was mind blowing. The average family made a fraction of what a "poor" US family does. No matter. This was very important to them.
What kind of American are you?
Celebrate freedom. As loud as you can while you still can. We have many flaws and may not last much longer, but this nation is STILL worth celebrating. As loud as you can, while you still can!
Ironically, in our neighborhood it's the Mexicans who really go all out with their fireworks. You can always tell where they live, because the city allows fireworks for about 3 days around the 4th among other holidays, and they take full advantage.
During Covid, they cancelled our city's fireworks show. I've never seen so many home fireworks in my life. It was a beautiful display of defiance. I was driving from one end of my valley to the other, and every town was absolutely lit up. Every neighborhood had created their own home fireworks show, and were partying in the streets in defiance of the silly edicts of our 'betters'. Even my mother, who would normally never spend money on fireworks for the same reasons you object, got a big old box that year.
My brother likes to take some steel wool on a string and set it on fire, then make patterns in the air with it. You can take pictures of wheels of fire; it's a fun (cheap) way to mimic fireworks without paying for them.
My brother lived for two years in the Philippines, and said that New Year's was an absolute war zone. He wasn't allowed to be out on the streets for a week, because of all the drunken shenanigans involving fireworks. Thankfully, our celebrations here are a little more tame.
Is anybody else perturbed that we have to pay taxes on the fireworks to celebrate the day we stopped paying taxes?
Oregon bans aerial fireworks, though some people get them. One couple near here did so, set the neighbor's (vacant, wooded) lot on fire with a flyaway, needing a response from the rural FD and the state Forestry people. "Merely" an acre, but the $5000 fine (circa 2006) got somebody's attention. People responding to the fire at 5:30AM were not sympathetic.
Elsewhere in our small town, saner people gather at the fire station with BYO fireworks. I have serious doubts about that $820 figure, though the grocery and other stores sell fireworks including one outfit that does a few tents in the small city.
I grew up near Detroit in the '50s, and people would do small-scale fireworks (firecrackers in a washtub full of sand were popular), but we'd go to the suburb's fireworks show. After 1960, I lived where fireworks were pretty well banned, including sparklers. OTOH, my brother seemed to be able to get M80s. I got something a bit smaller as a teen on a trip through Missouri. One box-o-booms. Made for some fun times in winter...
At least it's fireworks. Spent the 90s working air medical in NW LA. We rotated each month being based at a different hospital. At one particular hospital, our base and pad were within 50 yards of drug houses. For several years, every December 31st, we had to go red-red (couldn't fly regardless) due to gunfire. Even found a few spent bullets on the pad (all had blunt noses, had been shot up into the air and came down, as gravity does to things). We finally started changing bases during the day of December 31st......
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