Now, July has always been the family "unlucky month", (if anything can go wrong...this is when it will probably happen!) so it was inevitable that mixing July, fire, and people together would eventually result in a bit of chaos, right?
The way this event "works", there is a narrow strip of land between the lake and the road. You park your truck, break out the coolers and lawn chairs, slather yourself in Off and wait for the show.
Also, a lot of people buy fireworks from the stand across the road, and as long as there isn't a serious fire danger warning out, they are free to shoot these off before, during and after the "big show".
And yeah. Its not the safest idea in the world.
Every year my cousin comes up from Mississippi to spend the 4th with us. Our "crowd" consists of my parents, my sisters, my brother-in-law, my husband, and the kids.
So for the first time ever, we actually had fireworks with us. Laying in the bed of my cousins truck.
The kids played with sparklers, my brother-in-law set off a few little novelty fireworks. We settled down to wait for the big event as it grew dark. A few cars down from us, there was a family that must have blown all the money in the bank on fireworks. They were putting a show that was almost bigger than the actual display.
And one of those shot sideways and went off right over us. One huge piece hit my sister in the arm. The people on the other side of us scattered.
So there we are stomping out the grass, putting out the lawnchairs, saving the dropped phones and cameras, and putting Dermoplast on sis's burn (medical families always travel prepared?)...
"Um. The truck is on fire."
Sure enough. My cousin's truck bed was full of little fires. Because the sparks flew all the way over and landed on the bags of fireworks.
So wouldn't you know it? The very first time we ever had fireworks with us was the first time a rogue firework traveled over and landed in one of our vehicles, igniting all the plastic bags!
Fortunately, nothing explosive. Just bags of sparklers and smoke bombs. We got everything put out, nothing was damaged (except plastic bags and our trust in humanity, haha), and even sis's arm was just a very minor singe.
Still, those people were pretty crappy because they didn't even come over and ask if everyone was okay. And after the big firework show (which was awesome as always), those same people piled all their garbage up and lit that on fire before leaving.
Still turned out to be a good holiday, but I think next year we might leave the sparklers at home. Just in case. ;)
Happy (slightly late) 4th of July, folks!
So wouldn't you know it? The very first time we ever had fireworks with us was the first time a rogue firework traveled over and landed in one of our vehicles, igniting all the plastic bags!
Fortunately, nothing explosive. Just bags of sparklers and smoke bombs. We got everything put out, nothing was damaged (except plastic bags and our trust in humanity, haha), and even sis's arm was just a very minor singe.
Still, those people were pretty crappy because they didn't even come over and ask if everyone was okay. And after the big firework show (which was awesome as always), those same people piled all their garbage up and lit that on fire before leaving.
Still turned out to be a good holiday, but I think next year we might leave the sparklers at home. Just in case. ;)
Happy (slightly late) 4th of July, folks!