Safe fireworks?

[Oldgator73]

Alcohol and explosives just don't mix well, even though many people insist on doing that.

Neither does...
Alcohol and marriage
Alcohol and dancing
Alcohol and driving
Alcohol and operating heavy equipment
Alcohol and being a passenger on a airplane
Alcohol and collage/university
Alcohol and cutting yer lawn
Alcohol and bringing out the guitar at the campfire... (Which is my greatest dislike)

What is the common denominator here?

Alcohol is only a problem for those that have a problem with alcohol.

 

[SeilerBird]

alcohol and women
alcohol and drugs
alcohol and thinking clearly
alcohol and thinking
This could go on indefinitely

 

[Tulecreeper]

We’ve lived in states and/or cities that ban fireworks. But it’s the same problem states have with gun laws; folks just step across the border to purchase them. The fact that most or all fireworks originate from China is the same for many products we purchase. Americans have gotten used to buying products cheap enough to simply throw away when they have reached the end of their life. Fireworks are one of those things not unlike a good meal in that for those that enjoy them that enjoyment only lasts for a very short time.

Like flowers. We buy them, we take them home, they die in a few days, and we don't care or want our money back. I think things would change if we took them back to the florist, threw them on the counter, and yelled, "Hey, dummy! These things died. Gimme my money back!" Maybe they would come up with immortal flowers. Or not...

 

[Tulecreeper]

Alcohol and explosives just don't mix well, even though many people insist on doing that.

Neither does...
Alcohol and marriage
Alcohol and dancing
Alcohol and driving
Alcohol and operating heavy equipment
Alcohol and being a passenger on a airplane
Alcohol and collage/university
Alcohol and cutting yer lawn
Alcohol and bringing out the guitar at the campfire... (Which is my greatest dislike)

What is the common denominator here?

People who can't handle their alcohol?

 

[OldWEB]

Like flowers. We buy them, we take them home, they die in a few days, and we don't care or want our money back. I think things would change if we took them back to the florist, threw them on the counter, and yelled, "Hey, dummy! These things died. Gimme my money back!" Maybe they would come up with immortal flowers. Or not...

Things happen...

 

[SeilerBird]

I am one of the few people who can handle my alcohol. I have never drank so it has no chance to control me. My dad died in 1969 and my mom died in 1992 and my nephew who was like a son to me died a few years ago. All three of them from being an alcoholics. I really hate liquor, it takes your love ones away.

 

[Tulecreeper]

Fireworks are legal here, and folks start blasting away 3 days ahead of time. This entire state is basically one giant hardwood forest so you would think that there would be a lot of fires around the 4th, but surprisingly it almost never happens because everyone knows that and are very conscientious about fire safety. Personal safety, on the other hand, not so much.

I live quite rural, so there is a lot more booming and banging here than you would find in a more urban environment, but rednecks will be rednecks. Every year you can hear, "Pop! Pop! Pop! Bang! Bang! Brrrrrrrr! Boom!" Then, "Aaahhhiiiee!", followed a short time later by the sound of an ambulance in the distance. Then everything goes quiet for an hour, and then banjo music drifting down from the hills.

 

[UTTransplant]

"The rocket's red glare, bombs bursting in air"

Fireworks aren't going away, it's America.

You do know the rockets and bombs mentioned were artillery fire, don’t you?

 

[Rene T]

You do know the rockets and bombs mentioned were artillery fire, don’t you?

I was in the artillery while on my government paid vacation and I never saw a red glare by we did have some designed to burst in air.

 

[John From Detroit]

Banks are open that late at night. How else could they get in without setting off any alarms and if it was after hours, didn’t they have a huge safe they had to get into?

I do not know if the bank was open or more likely the cleaners were inside and the bad duds somehow either tricked or forced their way in.... I did not see it go down (The bank was in Detroit. I was in Northville about half an hour or so away by car) All I know is what the Trooper told me and what happned after as I was monitoring the city radio traffic (my job) and Dispatcher for the State part.
For nights like that both the City and the State want their top dispatchers on the job don't you know.. Kevin for the city. Me for the state.

 

[Rene T]

I do not know if the bank was open or more likely the cleaners were inside and the bad duds somehow either tricked or forced their way in.... I did not see it go down (The bank was in Detroit. I was in Northville about half an hour or so away by car) All I know is what the Trooper told me and what happned after as I was monitoring the city radio traffic (my job) and Dispatcher for the State part.
For nights like that both the City and the State want their top dispatchers on the job don't you know.. Kevin for the city. Me for the state.

Thank you both for your service. My wife filled in dispatching when the regulars were out or gone to lunch. Small city of 10,000. When she wasn’t doing that, she was a meter maid or better yet a “Parking Enforcement Officer”. That sounds better.

 

[Onyrlef]

I was in the artillery while on my government paid vacation and I never saw a red glare by we did have some designed to burst in air.

I was Armored Recon, we were also Forward Observers. My experience was the guys doing the shooting didn’t witness our end.

 

[Tulecreeper]

I have a new theme song:

 

[NMJEEP]

You can have my fireworks when you pry them from my cold fingers....which are over there on the sidewalk next to my beer

 

[UTTransplant]

I was in the artillery while on my government paid vacation and I never saw a red glare by we did have some designed to burst in air.

But the artillery experience was quite different from the stuff used in 1814. The rockets were used to show the targets, and the bombs were ignited by timed fuses. If your bomb was angled high and didn’t hit the target before blowing up, it definitely did burst, throwing shrapnel around. Source: NPS history class material on their website. Not hard to find with your favorite search engine.

Disclaimer: Kevin was in Field Artillery in Germany during the VN war, but shockingly the British didn’t have Pershing Missiles in 1814. We both worked on FA military firing computer software for a few years. Anyone remember Tacfire, Battery Computer System, or Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System? We worked on all of them in the early-mid 80s. I looked this info up many years ago, and just refreshed my memory.

 

[Wasillaguy]

Anyone remember Tacfire, Battery Computer System, or Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System? We worked on all of them in the early-mid 80s.

I worked during that time frame (early 80's) on what at that time was called "Teampack", a wide band surveillance receiver system. Several of these along the front would triangulate targets for those weapons, I assume.

 

[NY_Dutch]

Some of our friends wonder why we always head for a remote NY state park for the two weeks around the 4th where no fireworks are allowed. The closest friends know why...

 

[solarman]

many moons ago i set off a flashbang in our yard.. the kids literally **** their pants.. !

 

[Old_Crow]

many moons ago i set off a flashbang in our yard.. the kids literally **** their pants.. !

You're a lot more fun than some of these guys.

 

[Onyrlef]

But the artillery experience was quite different from the stuff used in 1814. The rockets were used to show the targets, and the bombs were ignited by timed fuses. If your bomb was angled high and didn’t hit the target before blowing up, it definitely did burst, throwing shrapnel around. Source: NPS history class material on their website. Not hard to find with your favorite search engine.

Disclaimer: Kevin was in Field Artillery in Germany during the VN war, but shockingly the British didn’t have Pershing Missiles in 1814. We both worked on FA military firing computer software for a few years. Anyone remember Tacfire, Battery Computer System, or Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System? We worked on all of them in the early-mid 80s. I looked this info up many years ago, and just refreshed my memory.

We just referred to it as the FDC ( fire direction center). As fo’s we’d call an encrypted 8 digit grid to the fdc with our location and azimuth to the target. They’d enter that in to the computer along with their position, azimuth, distance and elevation and a target triangulation was developed for a fire mission. When they fired they call back with shot over we’d answer shot out. Just before impact they’d call with splash over, we’d acknowledge with splash out. Then adjust fire.
Once we got to call a 10 digit fire mission to a Navy ship sitting a couple of miles off shore. Those cats could put a 15” round up your wazoo, it sounded like a locomotive going overhead.