I once read a book from the 1880’s about the horrors of fireworks, and about a family who went to Canada to escape the fireworks of July 4, and were beset by American tourists with fireworks. The controversy has been going on at least that long. A few years ago, locally, a smart young man with a creative urge was experimenting with making his own fireworks and blew his hands off with some unstable chemical.Nowadays, you can’t be a patriot without fireworks, even if they are from China. I got burnt out on them when living across the street from a park that hosted an annual concert and display. i went the first few years, but I ended up sitting in the basement with the cats one year. I moved to the country for various reasons, and last year my neighbor, with no warning, started an hour-long bombardment in my direction. If the grass had been any drier, we’d have had a brush fire. There has to be a better way to celebrate than this.
Quotes from Mark Twain:Statistics show that we lose more fools on this day than in all the other days of the year put together. This proves, by the number left in stock, that one Fourth of July per year is now inadequate, the country has grown so.- Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar
Eight grown Americans out of ten dread the coming of the Fourth, with its pandemonium and its perils, and they rejoice when it is gone—if still alive.- Following the Equator
The business aspects of the Fourth of July is not perfect as it stands. See what it costs us every year with loss of life, the crippling of thousands with its fireworks, and the burning down of property. It is not only sacred to patriotism and universal freedom, but to the surgeon, the undertaker, the insurance offices – and they are working it for all it is worth.- Speech, July 4, 1899, “The Day We Celebrate”
http://www.twainquotes.com/Fourth_July.html
Mark Twain’s Fourth of July Speechin Keokuk, IowaJuly 3, 1886http://www.twainquotes.com/July4-1886.html
Can you imagine how irresponsible the cartoonist would be considered if he made this today? Giving ideas about fireworks to impressionable children who might get ideas?
I really miss the joy I had when granddad on the 4th gave me a peck sack of fireworks. Setting them off unsupervised is one of my happiest memories. I’m 89. My happiest memory was being free as a POW in WW2. We had lots of supervised fireworks then in the philippines.
CeeJay over 9 years ago
Some things never change…..check out the politician. Other things have changed for the better…..the kid is lucky he has any fingers left.
grainpaw over 9 years ago
I once read a book from the 1880’s about the horrors of fireworks, and about a family who went to Canada to escape the fireworks of July 4, and were beset by American tourists with fireworks. The controversy has been going on at least that long. A few years ago, locally, a smart young man with a creative urge was experimenting with making his own fireworks and blew his hands off with some unstable chemical.Nowadays, you can’t be a patriot without fireworks, even if they are from China. I got burnt out on them when living across the street from a park that hosted an annual concert and display. i went the first few years, but I ended up sitting in the basement with the cats one year. I moved to the country for various reasons, and last year my neighbor, with no warning, started an hour-long bombardment in my direction. If the grass had been any drier, we’d have had a brush fire. There has to be a better way to celebrate than this.
Quotes from Mark Twain:Statistics show that we lose more fools on this day than in all the other days of the year put together. This proves, by the number left in stock, that one Fourth of July per year is now inadequate, the country has grown so.- Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar
Eight grown Americans out of ten dread the coming of the Fourth, with its pandemonium and its perils, and they rejoice when it is gone—if still alive.- Following the Equator
The business aspects of the Fourth of July is not perfect as it stands. See what it costs us every year with loss of life, the crippling of thousands with its fireworks, and the burning down of property. It is not only sacred to patriotism and universal freedom, but to the surgeon, the undertaker, the insurance offices – and they are working it for all it is worth.- Speech, July 4, 1899, “The Day We Celebrate”
http://www.twainquotes.com/Fourth_July.html
Mark Twain’s Fourth of July Speechin Keokuk, IowaJuly 3, 1886http://www.twainquotes.com/July4-1886.html
Duke of Omnium over 9 years ago
Can you imagine how irresponsible the cartoonist would be considered if he made this today? Giving ideas about fireworks to impressionable children who might get ideas?
TheAuldWan over 9 years ago
I really miss the joy I had when granddad on the 4th gave me a peck sack of fireworks. Setting them off unsupervised is one of my happiest memories. I’m 89. My happiest memory was being free as a POW in WW2. We had lots of supervised fireworks then in the philippines.