Another Fireworks Safety Tip with Critter [VIDEO]
There is no room for sloppiness when messing with fireworks... When you start doing stupid stuff with explosives, awesome happens. Try to catch it on video.
Growing up, there was a story told to all of the kids about fireworks that had us all making cautious decisions about handling them from an early age. The story goes like this...
When my grandfather was a much younger man, one summer, during his Fourth of July celebration, they were gathered around lighting off firecrackers. Back in his day, firecrackers were just that... Firecrackers. Little sticks of flash powder that made an impressive boom. If you can remember the horror stories from the early days before OSHA became a thing, you'll know that life used to be more dangerous. We didn't have an overbearing government looking to protect the galactically stupid, we let the process of natural selection have its pick.
My grandpa was lighting little firecrackers in his hands and throwing them out to burst. We've all done this at some point in our pyromania daze, but there's a key detail to his story. You see, when you bought firecrackers back then, they came packed loosely in a bag. As pickups weren't common then, while lighting firecrackers, he just kept his bag of fun tucked neatly under his arm.
Here's the curious thing about fireworks. Everything produces sparks and flames. If you've ever lit a fuse, you know, that fuse throws ridiculously hot sparks everywhere. Unfortunately for my grandfather, that big ol bag of firecrackers caught a few sparks off a fuse, and the entire thing popped off in his armpit.
Was he hurt? Probably. Grandpa was a mans man, he could be standing there with a burned up nub and he'd probably just walk it off. But that story, especially told at an early age left an impression of safety in all of us grandkids. Still, danger is fun.