Hello All:
Have your fun today! Live like there is no tomorrow! You're well aware of being past the point of no return and now suffer an addiction. Since that box of fireworks entered the house last week, you've pushed yourself over the edge by obsessively lighting rocket after M80 after mortar shell after pack of firecrackers. The snaps, pops and explosions offer a temporary relief from your madness. Even worse; the sky was once your target for bottle rockets, but now you aim for trees, houses, cars, and even each other! Once happy with simply lighting the wick to witness a ground explosion, you now stick M80s inside of birdhouses, mailboxes and tape them to neighbors' living room windows.But what will happen come tomorrow when the 4th of July is over? Your supply of fireworks will be depleted and your maddening obsession will no longer find temporary relief from an explosion or flash of light. That's when it hits you; you're going through major firework withdrawal. And I'm afraid there is no easy cure. You might as well have your fun today.
Firework Withdrawal
To an adult, Independence Day is a nice holiday that is held on the 4th of July. To a child it is the countdown, celebration and aftermath of the yearly pyromania festival, annually held in the middle of summer. For a child, 4th of July starts a week to a few days before the actual holiday as the box of fireworks come in the house.
The box is torn open with an excitement paralleled to that of Christmas morning. Faces overlook the box while checking out all the cool stuff: firecrackers, bottle rockets, sky rockets, Roman candles, parachutes, miniature whistling Saturn rockets, UFOs that spin up in the air, pinwheels—all that fun stuff. Perhaps you even spend 1000s of dollars on mortar shells and rockets that are more appropriate for your local fireworks show.
I recall as a child, waiting in anticipation for Dad to finally agree one night to open a few packs of whatever, just to try the fireworks out. Not only was that cool, but it made it possible to sneak some outside later the next day. Any child understands the fun and excitement of sneaking a pack of matches out of the house along with a couple packs of firecrackers. You can light them when adults aren't looking! So devious!
4th of July approaching and still not in the mood for fireworks? This is highly unlikely for a child. But if so, the 3rd of July will put you in the mood! On the night of the 3rd, everyone in the neighborhood stays up late to light about half of their supply of fireworks. A kid is smack-dab in the middle of pure pyro-ecstasy, launching rockets and blowing up the yard with firecrackers and M80s. And the festivities of that night still have the double-whammy: the 4th of July is the following evening!
So you wake up early the next morning—the king of summer holidays, 4th of July. But what's this? RAIN??? "Oh no!" You waited all year for this day and Mother Nature pulled a cruel joke by raining in it? Dad might sadistically announce that the 4th of July is ruined. Mom restores everyone's hope by re-assuring it's only a morning shower blowing over. She, too, is concerned about the weather because of her party and barbeque. Still, the invasion of rain is enough to throw any child in pyromania over the edge, causing near mental breakdown.
Fortunately, the rain ends for the day which means that the yearly pyromania festivities can finally commence. All day long the neighborhood lights firecrackers, bottle rockets, M80s and mortar shells. It's necessary to break some time during the afternoon to have that 4th of July barbecue and then resume the festivities until early evening when the family must attend that stupid fireworks display. A kid doesn't want to go to a fireworks display when there is a personal collection at home.
The show seems to last for ever! But shortly after returning home to light the remains of the fireworks, the evening is over all too quick. The heavy-artillery rockets and other cool stuff that flies in the air are all used up before midnight! The only thing left for a kid to do is lie in bed and listen to the neighbors light their stuff until 3am. It's pure torture!
***
The following morning of July 4th begins the aftermath of the holiday for a child. You go outside and look at all the used fireworks lying around the front and backyard and only wish there is more.
"Dad, we still have some bottle rockets left; can I light some?"
"Nope! 4th of July is over!"
Yes, fireworks withdrawal officially sets in on the morning of July 5th. For a child, however, it begins the attempt to make his own explosive devices. He sneaks out some of the remaining fireworks and cuts them open to see how they are made. He looks up the ingredients for gunpowder in the encyclopedia but the only thing he has at home is charcoal to grind into powder.
Grinding the charcoal into powder is a start.
Mom wants to know why her children are suddenly full of black charcoal on their hands and arms.
"We were just playing in the barbecue, Mom."
I recall as a child making all kinds of explosive devices that didn't exactly blow up, but simply caught on fire. A pipe filled with a mixture of charcoal and lighter fluid only made a flare. A bunch of grounded up match heads ignited very quickly, but when done in toilet paper roll, simply made a fire.
The coolest thing I had ever made was putty that ignited (kind of like plastic explosives without the explosion). I emptied the contents of a model rocket engine into a bowl, and rolled it all up into Play-Do. Then I inserted the solar igniter (activated by electric current and usually inserted in a model rocket engine to ignite it). My new compound was placed on something outside and the wires of the solar igniter were ran into my bedroom, then connected to a power supply. I simply flipped the switch, and a major combustion with mushroom cloud would take place. What a disappointment when I ran out of model rocket engines.
I recall the year that I was so hopelessly crazy with pyromania that took a bunch of dried up grass and desperately crammed it into a toilet paper roll. I lit the paper wick and threw it out my bedroom window. To my horror, the side of the house began to catch fire because we hadn't seen rain in a few weeks. And as I ran outside to throw water on the fire, my mother and father came home and saw what I had been up to.
Yes fireworks season was over. And fireworks withdrawal was quickly extinguished by being grounded for playing with matches, making bombs and nearly setting the backyard on fire when Mom and Dad were gone.
"Your little fireworks escapade is over, Tommy!"
To an adult, Independence Day is a nice holiday that is held on the 4th of July. To a child it is the countdown, celebration and aftermath of the yearly pyromania festival, annually held in the middle of summer. For a child, 4th of July starts a week to a few days before the actual holiday as the box of fireworks come in the house.
The box is torn open with an excitement paralleled to that of Christmas morning. Faces overlook the box while checking out all the cool stuff: firecrackers, bottle rockets, sky rockets, Roman candles, parachutes, miniature whistling Saturn rockets, UFOs that spin up in the air, pinwheels—all that fun stuff. Perhaps you even spend 1000s of dollars on mortar shells and rockets that are more appropriate for your local fireworks show.
I recall as a child, waiting in anticipation for Dad to finally agree one night to open a few packs of whatever, just to try the fireworks out. Not only was that cool, but it made it possible to sneak some outside later the next day. Any child understands the fun and excitement of sneaking a pack of matches out of the house along with a couple packs of firecrackers. You can light them when adults aren't looking! So devious!
4th of July approaching and still not in the mood for fireworks? This is highly unlikely for a child. But if so, the 3rd of July will put you in the mood! On the night of the 3rd, everyone in the neighborhood stays up late to light about half of their supply of fireworks. A kid is smack-dab in the middle of pure pyro-ecstasy, launching rockets and blowing up the yard with firecrackers and M80s. And the festivities of that night still have the double-whammy: the 4th of July is the following evening!
So you wake up early the next morning—the king of summer holidays, 4th of July. But what's this? RAIN??? "Oh no!" You waited all year for this day and Mother Nature pulled a cruel joke by raining in it? Dad might sadistically announce that the 4th of July is ruined. Mom restores everyone's hope by re-assuring it's only a morning shower blowing over. She, too, is concerned about the weather because of her party and barbeque. Still, the invasion of rain is enough to throw any child in pyromania over the edge, causing near mental breakdown.
Fortunately, the rain ends for the day which means that the yearly pyromania festivities can finally commence. All day long the neighborhood lights firecrackers, bottle rockets, M80s and mortar shells. It's necessary to break some time during the afternoon to have that 4th of July barbecue and then resume the festivities until early evening when the family must attend that stupid fireworks display. A kid doesn't want to go to a fireworks display when there is a personal collection at home.
The show seems to last for ever! But shortly after returning home to light the remains of the fireworks, the evening is over all too quick. The heavy-artillery rockets and other cool stuff that flies in the air are all used up before midnight! The only thing left for a kid to do is lie in bed and listen to the neighbors light their stuff until 3am. It's pure torture!
***
The following morning of July 4th begins the aftermath of the holiday for a child. You go outside and look at all the used fireworks lying around the front and backyard and only wish there is more.
"Dad, we still have some bottle rockets left; can I light some?"
"Nope! 4th of July is over!"
Yes, fireworks withdrawal officially sets in on the morning of July 5th. For a child, however, it begins the attempt to make his own explosive devices. He sneaks out some of the remaining fireworks and cuts them open to see how they are made. He looks up the ingredients for gunpowder in the encyclopedia but the only thing he has at home is charcoal to grind into powder.
Grinding the charcoal into powder is a start.
Mom wants to know why her children are suddenly full of black charcoal on their hands and arms.
"We were just playing in the barbecue, Mom."
I recall as a child making all kinds of explosive devices that didn't exactly blow up, but simply caught on fire. A pipe filled with a mixture of charcoal and lighter fluid only made a flare. A bunch of grounded up match heads ignited very quickly, but when done in toilet paper roll, simply made a fire.
The coolest thing I had ever made was putty that ignited (kind of like plastic explosives without the explosion). I emptied the contents of a model rocket engine into a bowl, and rolled it all up into Play-Do. Then I inserted the solar igniter (activated by electric current and usually inserted in a model rocket engine to ignite it). My new compound was placed on something outside and the wires of the solar igniter were ran into my bedroom, then connected to a power supply. I simply flipped the switch, and a major combustion with mushroom cloud would take place. What a disappointment when I ran out of model rocket engines.
I recall the year that I was so hopelessly crazy with pyromania that took a bunch of dried up grass and desperately crammed it into a toilet paper roll. I lit the paper wick and threw it out my bedroom window. To my horror, the side of the house began to catch fire because we hadn't seen rain in a few weeks. And as I ran outside to throw water on the fire, my mother and father came home and saw what I had been up to.
Yes fireworks season was over. And fireworks withdrawal was quickly extinguished by being grounded for playing with matches, making bombs and nearly setting the backyard on fire when Mom and Dad were gone.
"Your little fireworks escapade is over, Tommy!"
No comments:
Post a Comment