Things you just don't get

HRoi · Jan 15, 2014

Fireworks are the best. Best enjoyed with father and brothers of course. We had a blast over new year with some really cool rocketry and ordnance. My brother even bought us these special lighters that looked like arc welders with the flame shooting out of the end.

Nice to see that most of you enjoy a good explosion and that I'm not hanging out with a bunch of nancy boys. Except for pB of course

Douglas · Jan 15, 2014

HRoi said:
Nice to see that most of you enjoy a good explosion and that I'm not hanging out with a bunch of nancy boys. Except for pB of course

You are on a men's clothing forum. In case you hadn't noticed.

HRoi · Jan 15, 2014

The fireworks do put a bit of hair on our collective balls, though

MrG · Jan 15, 2014

I love doing fireworks, but I can take or leave watching them (it's sort of like golf in that way). You can't get them in Georgia, so, despite the fact that you can get them in adjacent states, a lot of people don't do them, which means it's hard to get away with it due to the lack of safety in numbers.

We did some awesome stuff back in my Florida days, though. I miss it every 12/31 and 7/4. I love it when one of our visits coincides with those holidays.

Piobaire said:
I used to drive to Indiana a couple of times a year for some kick ass fire works. You could buy 2" mortars and they were ******* insane.

Stuff like this.

You can still get these in Florida. A few Fourth of Julys ago, we were doing a bunch of them, and one exploded crazy early, like 15 feet off the ground. It was pretty awesome.

Piobaire · Jan 15, 2014

MrG said:
You can still get these in Florida. A few Fourth of Julys ago, we were doing a bunch of them, and one exploded crazy early, like 15 feet off the ground. It was pretty awesome.

Had that happen more than once.

We would go to a friendly farmer's field and he had a berm of sand. I'd bury the base of six or more of the tubes staggered by about one foot. You could buy lengths of the fuse cord so I'd link them all in a chain, light, and run like hell in the other direction. One of the scariest things that ever happened is one did not launch and a friend looked in the tube...big mistake. His ear still has a scar and he's lucky it was not a full on hit in the face.

Gibonius · Jan 15, 2014

Douglas said:
In one of those strange wrinkles of conflicting state laws, larger fireworks are illegal to possess in Maryland. In Pennsylvania, they are legal to sell, but not to PA residents. So there are a cluster of these stores right on the border where PA stores sell to MD residents only who then bring them back across the state line. I am told there are state troopers who lay in wait just over the border looking for an excuse to pull someone over and justify a search, but I am not sure if that is true (or practical, or fully legal).

My Dad goes nuts with the things. I have no problem with it; I quite enjoy them. He puts on monster shows at least 3-4 times a year, and we fire off a handful randomly at other times throughout the year; we launched a good one last weekend in honor of my brother's birthday.

The only thing that concerns me is safety. We had one fall over a couple of years ago, and by luck (and I guess probability) the thing fell over in a direction where the roman candles were going off to the left (still towards us, but far enough to the side that nobody was in danger). When this is happening there are typically 50-150 people there, so there could have been serious injuries. Since then, I have served as the safety inspector, making sure all the major artillery goes off behind stone walls where, should something tip, it could not shoot towards the crowd.

We once got a batch of these enormous concussive rockets, where the only effect is an explosion. It was basically an M80 on a stick. They usually went up a couple hundred feet and were still *loud*. One of them misfired and blew up maybe 30 feet off the ground. Everybody fells over, my ears were ringing for hours.

We also set some ornamental grasses on fire where a Roman candle burned through the side of tube and started shooting randomly.

Good times.

HRoi · Jan 15, 2014

I've had rockets explode right on the launcher lots of times. That's why we used those lighters where our fingers are well away from the wick.

Bhowie · Jan 15, 2014

Gotta use punks

MrG · Jan 15, 2014

Yup. Punks are the way to go.

Cigarettes worked well when I was a smoker, too.

Piobaire said:
Had that happen more than once.

We would go to a friendly farmer's field and he had a berm of sand. I'd bury the base of six or more of the tubes staggered by about one foot. You could buy lengths of the fuse cord so I'd link them all in a chain, light, and run like hell in the other direction. One of the scariest things that ever happened is one did not launch and a friend looked in the tube...big mistake. His ear still has a scar and he's lucky it was not a full on hit in the face.

Oh, man, we never had a way to bury something as big as a mortar. That would have been cool. We definitely connected fuses together, though. That was the best way to get the biggest booms.

That guy is lucky. Duds, especially the mortars, are the only thing that's a little scary to me about playing with fireworks.

gomestar · Jan 15, 2014

some of the pranks that I've pulled are well documented here, but I never did the smoke bomb under a car trick. shame.

aravenel · Jan 15, 2014

We'd always use the 2" mortars to blow things up as well. We used to love putting a trashcan over the launcher. Those things have some power--it would blow the trashcan a good 15 feet into the air, and after a couple of shot would usually blow the trashcan apart.

God, we were idiots. Tons of fun though.

L'Incandescent · Jan 15, 2014

Douglas said:
My Dad goes nuts with the things. I have no problem with it; I quite enjoy them. He puts on monster shows at least 3-4 times a year, and we fire off a handful randomly at other times throughout the year; we launched a good one last weekend in honor of my brother's birthday.

Umm you know, Douglas, this is a thread about things you don't get. But here you are posting about how you fire off fireworks. Now how the hell did you fire them off if you didn't first get (acquire) them?

WORDS HAVE MEANINGS!

Douglas · Jan 15, 2014

KEEP CALM
AND
POST TANGENTIAL COMMENTS
IN THREADS WHOSE TITLES
MIGHT NOT NECESSARILY
WHEN READ LITERALLY
APPEAR TO
ACCOMMODATE THEM

redcaimen · Jan 15, 2014

L'Incandescent said:
Umm you know, Douglas, this is a thread about things you don't get. But here you are posting about how you fire off fireworks. Now how the hell did you fire them off if you didn't first get (acquire) them?

WORDS HAVE MEANINGS!

Maybe he is just meta-posting. It is a thread about things you don't get.

L'Incandescent · Jan 15, 2014

redcaimen said:
Maybe he is just meta-posting. It is a thread about things you don't get.

I don't get why you would conjecture such a conjecture.

Things you just don't get

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