Independence Day 2020

Not looking so good for Oregonians.

 

NOPE! Not gunna happen, gotta keep the boot of absolute authority to our necks!

 

Even the small towns have banned fireworks in the past few years. What’s more American than buying Chinese rockets off the Indian Reservations and “accidentally” setting your neighbor’s shake roof in fire?!

 

Or us us Indians going off reservation and accidentally setting stuff on fire.

 

Going to a reservation might be the only option, if they're allowed to even sell them.

 

Let me know if I need to send you some packages marked "machine parts" before the 4th

 

LOL, Thanks Brother, were hangin out in the Inland Passage about 600 miles north of Seattle, were anchored up in a nice cove and were eating fresh crab and mussels almost daily! We haven't seen a civilian boat in several days, and besides tugs, barges, or mosterous log rafts, Coastal Freighters, and the occasional Coast Guard Cutter, there is NO body to bother us! We had one Tug radio us to ask if we were ok or needed any assistance, but that's it, and the Canuck Coasties, have only stopped once when we first got here, and were super friendly and told us to enjoy and went on their way!

 

The local fireworks display has been postponed until Nov. 11th/ Veteran's Day, so it looks like there will be a lot of backyard fireworks display this July 4th. I might even use a few exploding targets...the big ones!

 

Goex is made in the USA.

 

We don't need any organized fireworks display around here. Never have. Even with anything more exciting than a sparkler being outlawed we still manage.
Bunch of Coastal folks know how to blow some stuff up!

I especially enjoyed the competition one year. Volley of mortars here, bundles of bottle rockets over there, a couple thousand firecrackers making clouds of ground smoke. Back and forth was pretty steady until somebody in between set off an artillery simulator that shook the whole neighborhood. Absolute silence for a long
time. So quiet that you could hear car tires hissing on the pavement as they went past. It took a bit to pick back up, but the first "Whoop" was greeted by another in the distance and the fireworks competition was back on!

 

We haven't done organized fireworks displays since our kids were young. Now we have grandkids and would like them to see ther larger displays. And let's just say fireworks sold in Oregon are barely entertaining for children. The fun fireworks for private displays have to be obtained from out of state, is what I hear anyway.

 

Its an all out war zone around here,Who's got the biggest boomer !

 

I like the reasoning of South Carolina when it comes to bottle rockets. They outlawed the little ones because people were shooting them at each other. (In the late 80's with budget cuts hitting us hard I used little bottle rockets and fire crackers to add realism to training exercises. It sure beat throwing pine cones and yelling "Grenade!")

So what happens now that instead of pencil size bottle rockets we can only get cigar size ones and larger? Well... we shoot those at each other. What else did they expect? Oh, and the big ones go further under water too! Great fun. Much reduced fire risk, and all the sticks wash up on the shore with the tide for easy clean up. Unfortunately we don't have really deep water too close to shore like we had in Okinawa. We launched all sorts of fireworks into the water off the sea wall. We had a great time. The poor divers that were trying to come ashore didn't. All we saw was their frantic dive lights trying to find the flashes of light in the water. That ended our evening festivities.

 

Winner Winner !!!

 

We prefer to make our own, just like our whiskey!

I remember Roman Candle duels with my cousins. Choose your weapons, take ten steps, light the fuse and aim!

 

Back in 1984, my Navy ship was in Boston Harbor for the week including Independence Day. I got to tour Old Ironsides, and a bunch of us squids walked the route of Paul Revere's Ride.
One of the funnest things was the group of local kids on the next pier over, shooting bottle rockets at us. They came nowhere close. Too much distance for those wee rockets. But we cheered them on.

 

I was a Civil War re-enactor for 20 years, and I know well the taste and smell of BP. Saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal in the proper amounts and processed correctly...I've done it, but ALL of the evidence is gone!

 

KInda like fishing on the Brazos..............um........so I hear.