There is so much to say about it that the biggest problem is where to start.
First, we shoot them out of Joseph Stalin's head. I guess that's a good place to begin. We moved to this small mill neighborhood 7 years ago. Mostly we have very elderly neighbors. The annual New Year show here began because a neighbor's 7 year old grandson wanted see fireworks. We had about 12 people that year.
Last year we had close to 40 people and they come from as far as Kansas. Most of the neighbors and visitors buy around $75 worth of fireworks so the show starts at about 7 and ends at 10. So far nobody has been killed or seriously injured but you'd be amazed at how fast a 90 year old can move when one of those multiple shooter things falls over on it's side and starts firing horizontal instead of vertical. They actually spin around in a circle when they fall over so the danger is pretty much everywhere. Imagine "spin the bottle" only with really really hot kisses. Like that...
We're in South Carolina so I should clear up the detail about Joseph Stalin's head. It's not really his actual head. Another neighbor has a brother who had a sculptress for a mother in law. She created a bronze bust of his head as a birthday present. He and the wife are divorced now. That's either a critical detail or the mother in law was a bad sculptress but we'll never know. The bronze bust is the spitting image of Joe Stalin.
The neighbor of the brother ended up with the bronze head. He's a creative guy. He also took pity on the old people having to run for their lives due to those multiple warheads that got away. He's also a welder. He mounted various launching pads on Joe's head and drilled a few holes for the bottle rockets. The first time we touched off Joe's head it fell over. Now all of this falling over stuff added some hilarity the first or second time but running from rockets got old quickly. I donated a Black and Decker workbench and we were able to clamp the head in it and gain some control over where the rockets and mortars went. I'm pretty sure that Black and Decker never intended for anyone to mount a wiffle head in their bench but there was no warning about it in the smart papers that came with MY bench. B&D legal should look into it.
The party grew in popularity each year. Our crowd has grown. I'm anxious to see how many show up tonight. The locals have learned not to drive down our street during the festivities. You know, it's really difficult to control when those things go off. All fuses are not created equal.
It's educational. There are factors most people who go to professional fireworks shows never think of. Never look down a mortar tube when the thing takes too long to fire. If you do as we do and make an eating event out of it, eat first. Card tables are flammable. It's difficult to get gunpowder out of cake frosting. The really bright boomers make streetlight sensors think that it is daytime. It takes exactly 5 minutes for a streetlight to come back on after you trick it with a bright flash.
Have a happy new year. I bet our fireworks show isn't as impressive as the professional ones with synchronized music but it's a hell of a lot funnier.