Firework Season

With the coming of warm weather comes firework season. Minnesota only has wimpy, non-exploding types, although enough people find a way to injure themselves on them. The illegal ones they bring in from South Dakota, are another matter. As a child, the best small firecrackers were Black Cats, followed by Zebras. The air of our summer days was filled with the scents of gunpowder and punk, and the sounds of explosions, some sharp, others muffled as we tried to blow cans high into the sky. We were young and dumb, although no one on our block ever got any injury worse than a "stinger." The best big ones were M-80's, quite capable of destroying a toilet in an unattended park restroom, or causing a permanent disfiguration.

A few years back I bought some fireworks- showers of sparks, Roman Candles, etc.
I lit them off on the fourth, they burned brightly and hissed, giving off a sulfuric stench.

What was once dumb fun now just seemed dumb.