The Best Fireworks Ever

If you think about it, a modern fireworks display is a very controlled experience. Due to the dangerous nature of the fireworks themselves, extreme care is used in their manufacture, transportation and exhibition. When I was a teenager (somethingsomething years ago), our neighborhood park would always celebrate the fourth with a pyrotechnic extravaganza, launched from the park sledding hill, with fiery comets arcing over the mighty and majestic Shingle Creek. It was the same every year until the last time it was held. An errant missile, only the second or third in the program, fell back, sputtering unto the stacks of unlit rockets.

An immediate chaotic eruption ensued. Instead of thud-whoosh-boom, with colorful sparks making orderly flowers of fire in the sky above, we had a 3-D nightmare scene of people running, sideways explosions, and the sense of “this can't be happening!” Luckily, no one was seriously hurt. As spectacle, however, it was hard to top. Instead of looking at the fireworks, you were in the fireworks!