I really miss the big fireworks we had when I was a kid. we could get anything in Missouri. if you had property you could even get m-80's from the state (for the exclusive use of keeping deer and such out of your crops I assure you
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but the best where our homemade versions. unloading rockets and reloading the display. or modifying 'd' engine model rockets and replacing the recovery system with assorted fireworks and enough loose powder to make sure they where all lit by the chute charge. or just a big powder charge buried out in the field with an electric detonator so you could set it off at the stroke of midnight. handled safely (more or less) and set off well away from people or property, it was a lot of fun.
those days have been gone for awhile. and I know exactly when it changed for me. the day of the Oklahoma City bombing. I went to the basement and destroyed all my homemade fireworks that day and haven't even made a small firecracker since. the rules had changed.
the rules had changed forever. no longer where you patriotic when you set-off 1/2 a pound of 'red-dot' in a PVC pipe. now you'd go on a list of suspected terrorists. it ruined the whole thing for me, I don't even bother with any fireworks at all anymore. it's just not the same.
