Today I had a barbecue for the Fourth of July. This morning, as I was preparing the house, my mom went out, saying, "I'm going to buy some fireworks!" I brushed off the statement since I knew it couldn't happen. They're illegal to sell in New Jersey and she certainly wasn't going to drive all the way to Pennsylvania for some fireworks... was she?
She came back a couple hours later waving around a big bundle of fireworks. Somehow, she had managed to find some guy who had bought fireworks from Pennsylvania and was reselling them. She was way more excited about the fireworks than I was.
I managed to forget about the fireworks for most of the barbecue, but at 8:50 my parents came around to my friends and I and told us not to forget, we are setting off fireworks at 9 o' clock! BE THERE! Ten minutes later my friends and I were gathered on the driveway with my parents, my grandma, and my aunt and uncle. The reactions to the fireworks by the two generations were so different.
My dad: Okay just hold on to it here and let me light it! Just hold on while it burns, it'll be fine!
Me: Let's light them at the end of the driveway, set them down, and then run as far as possible.
Aunt/uncle/mom: Give us something to light more fireworks with! *light up cigarettes and start smoking them so the ends can be used as a lighter*
Half of my friends: Oh this is cool, we'd be lighting them too if we had anything to light them with... *ignore box of matches and willfully not ask to borrow a lighter*
Other half of my friends: We'll just stay back here and watch.
Mom: It's fun! Try it! *lights five firecrackers before finally persuading Anastasya to try one...*
Anastasya: *tries one and gets too scared to try it again until half an hour later*
Older people: *light fireworks willy-nilly without reading the instructions*
Younger people: *standing under garage light examining each package carefully for clues to how it works, and then carefully prepping each package the correct way*
Grandma: *diligently tying long strings of firecrackers together to make a bigger explosion*
Younger people: *at this point most of them have wandered onto the safe haven of the lawn and have stopped interacting with the fireworks at all*
Aunt: Why are your friends not playing with the fireworks as well? They are no fun.
My friends: Your parents are crazy.
Winne: Make them stop before they hurt themselves!
Honey was the cutest. We brought him out on a leash to enjoy the fireworks with us. For a while he kept trying to run back into the house or under the car. Then, when we were sitting on the lawn he kept hiding under people's legs.
I attribute this to the older generations being from China. They have no fear of fireworks at all, even when the firecrackers hit some of us and several of the Roman candles came precariously close to people's cars and our house, and one fired all of its shots directly into our lawn. I still can't believe my father wanted to hold some of the fireworks in his hand as they went off. When I studied in Beijing, my professor told us that stupid behavior like that was the reason why fireworks had been banned in big cities in the first place.
Comments (6)
When I told my Dad about the fireworks shenanigans last night, he said, "Oh, we used to light up M80s in the restaurant all the time and watch trash cans explode! It was so much fun!" I think my Dad would have had a lot of fun last night.
i did not say that
anastasya
@o__________9 - yea you did
How cool that your mom went out and got them!
ahahaha so true, so true
thanks for having us : ]
let's do it again :D
that is not my quote