Your favorite 4th of July story

dodgy

dodgy

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Hah, I am expecting a shortage of posts. Years ago I was warned some of y'all still hold a grudge regarding this fun Holiday. For a kid, there's nothing quite like blowing things up!

Back in the 60s fireworks were illegal in Chicago and many states just had sparklers. In the southern hillbilly states the assortment was much better than most and plenty dangerous. Cherry bombs and silver salutes (M-80), plus two shot aerial bombs were around if you asked.

There was also a guy who stopped at local gas stations around the 4th who made his own explosives and sold em to us and other guys. Quarter stick of dynamite that would make a large hole just sitting on the ground going off. No directed force at all. It was a good idea to use those all up and not store any in the house.

Plus, it was always in the summer! I mean jeez, it's a perfect time to be outside anyway. Plus, those icky girls don't like doing any of this stuff. Like a boys only club.
 
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Uncle Bertie said:
. Can I steal a heartwarming Lake Woebegone tale and pass it off as mine?
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Funny, but I just saw he's gonna do one final episode and that's it.

There's an author named George Plimpton who wrote a LOT of different stuff and was also nuts about fireworks. Wrote a good book on the subject and was elected New York Commissioner of Fireworks, whatever that was.
 
dodgy said:
Hah, I am expecting a shortage of posts. Years ago I was warned some of y'all still hold a grudge regarding this fun Holiday.
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Nothing of the sort, Martin. (We do in fact hold our own secret ceremony to celebrate that some pesky, beardie, holier-than-thou puritan types once left on sailing boats to Christ-knows-where, but we're not meant to tell you about that.)

dodgy said:
For a kid, there's nothing quite like blowing things up!

Back in the 60s fireworks were illegal in Chicago and many states just had sparklers. In the southern hillbilly states the assortment was much better than most and plenty dangerous. Cherry bombs and silver salutes (M-80), plus two shot aerial bombs were around if you asked.

There was also a guy who stopped at local gas stations around the 4th who made his own explosives and sold em to us and other guys. Quarter stick of dynamite that would make a large hole just sitting on the ground going off. No directed force at all. It was a good idea to use those all up and not store any in the house.

Plus, it was always in the summer! I mean jeez, it's a perfect time to be outside anyway. Plus, those icky girls don't like doing any of this stuff. Like a boys only club.
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That's pretty cool. The nearest we ever got to that was Chinese-made bangers smuggled back from school trips to France (bangers having been illegal over here since ever). They packed some explosive power and one kid from school knocked up a makeshift gun that fired ball bearings using them (he survived and now runs his own engineering co). Also bird scarers were pretty chunky. They came spaced out along a slow burning fuse with a banger going off every half-hour or so. When the gamekeepers hung them up we'd try to retrieve them without being seen by the shooters. All good craic but probably not in the same league as 1/4 dynamite sticks.
 
4th of July? Whassat then? :p

In all seriousness, I'll be breaking out the Fatboy, a Lab Blue, Krampert's Soap and Frostbite A/S with a splash of Yankee Old Spice for afters (thank you, dear Dodgy). On the fifth!
 
From late 60s to mid 70s the place to buy good illegal fireworks was at a barbershop turned Hair Salon and run by 'Mr Ralph'. Had a back room with lots of stuff to blow off, not to mention an always amazing price on new Levi jeans. Then there was also a bookie joint in a local hot dog place with a couple pinballs stuck in the tight space in front.
 
dodgy said:
Funny, but I just saw he's gonna do one final episode and that's it.

There's an author named George Plimpton who wrote a LOT of different stuff and was also nuts about fireworks. Wrote a good book on the subject and was elected New York Commissioner of Fireworks, whatever that was.
Click to expand...

Believe that I had heard him say recently on a show that he had suffered a "brain seizure". I was driving at the time but I'm fairly sure that he was referring to a recent event.


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Hiya,

Maybe some of you know about a 4th of July hot dog eating contest in New York every year. I don't recall this event as a kid so maybe it only started 20 years ago or maybe not.

Anyway, a skinny little Japanese guy named Kobayashi came on the scene and cleaned up, so to speak. The sport of competitive eating had found a new hero! Seriously, his skill was way above any other contestants weighing over twice as much.
 
Uncle Bertie said:
I heard of him!
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Yep, originally he was famous for eating maybe 20 more hot dogs than anyone else. Some crazy number anyway. It just didn't seem natural but it was happening live and up close.

Poor guy later got caught up in some kinda politics issue with a union being involved somehow. Was ultimately banned from competing in that particular most well known contest. Plenty to read about for sure.
 
Well I ended up going to the hot dog contest live feed, with the women's going first. Heh, I couldn't bring myself to watch it....can't be a good visual.

So the men's deal was next up, but I found out my interest level was extremely low and I skipped that too.

The guy who runs that always hits me the wrong way with his promotion/marketing techniques. He may have had a brother in the Nathans Hot Dog business with him but no idea what happened.
 
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