Safe and Sane

     Remember the fireworks that they used to sell back in the 1950’s and 60’s? They called them “Safe and Sane,” although by today’s standards they would be considered dangerous and “a lawsuit just waiting to happen.”
     Back when I was growing up in Burbank, we didn’t have the big fancy fireworks displays that we have today. You had to go to someplace special, like the Rose Bowl and pay to see a “professional” fireworks display back then. We ordinary folks had to put on our own fireworks displays, and that’s where the fun was --- even if it was dangerous.
    Almost very busy street corner with a vacant lot had a fireworks stand on it. They looked like chicken coops with bunting, complete with chicken wire. That chicken wire was placed across the front of the stand so you couldn’t reach in and touch the merchandise. I recall little window areas where money and merchandise changed hands. Adults could reach over the top of the wire to get the larger boxed assortments. Large “No Smoking” signs were all over the place.
    Names like “Red Devil” and “Black Panther” were emblazoned across the stand, which were sponsored by local charitable groups or service clubs. We usually bought ours at the stands on Hollywood Way at Chandler. The lot at Victory and Buena Vista, where Jim Jeffries’ old house stood, was also a big corner for the fireworks stands. The various assortments were displayed on the back wall along with the prices, as well as individual pieces. They had some things in my price range, like “Snakes” for a nickel, and sparklers for a dime. When your weekly allowance is only 25 cents, those prices were no small change. Inevitably, my dad would go with me and buy a modest assortment for us to use on the 4th.
    Once we got the fireworks home, it was great fun to check out the assortment. If you were lucky, your box contained a “house on fire.” It was a little box, about the size and shape of a Log Cabin Syrup can. You lit the fuse sticking out of the chimney and watched as the house belched out smoke and sparks before eventually burning to the ground. (This was the 1950’s, we were easily impressed back then, ok?)
    Snakes were another favorite. Those little black pellets were fascinating. Put a match to the top of one, and it would smoke and burn, and magically start expanding up and out just like a real snake. I vaguely remember someone saying those things were made out of arsenic, so you didn’t want to touch them for fear of getting poisoned. We had to set them off on a board because they would leave black and yellow marks on the cement sidewalk. I found a box of snakes several years ago, and just had to light one off to show my young son what he had missed.
    On the night of the 4 th we would all gather out in the front yard to set off our fireworks. The garden hose was at the ready just in case we caught something on fire. There were those lovely fountains that spewed sparks several feet up in the air. My dad would nail a pinwheel to one of the trees, and we would be amazed at how fast it spun around. I guess we were lucky that our tree didn’t catch on fire. Sparklers, with their white-hot sparks were neat. Some kids used to thrown them in the air, but we were never allowed to do that. They could (and probably did) catch the wooden shingled roofs on fire.
    My mom used to tell me about the fireworks she had as a kid back in Kansas ---- things like Roman Candles, Sky Rockets, and Firecrackers. One year my assortment had a piece in it that looked like a Roman Candle (it wasn’t). It was a foot-long tube about an inch in diameter, with a red wooden handle to hold onto. The directions said to point it away from you and not at other people. What it didn’t tell you was that when lit, it shot out sparks all over the place that could come back and get you. I still recall my “excitement” when I realized a spark was burning a hole in the sleeve of my flannel shirt. That’s when that garden hose came in real handy.
    When I was 10, we went to Kansas to visit my grandmother. As luck would have it, we were there on Independence Day. They had fireworks stands there too, but they sold real firecrackers. I recall spending half the afternoon standing on a hillside by the lake, lighting firecrackers and tossing them into the wind so that they went off just over the water’s edge. Dangerous, reckless, boring --- of course it was, but when you are 10, it is great fun. I even got to shoot off a Roman Candle, but made sure it wasn’t pointed directly in line with my eye. I’d been warned that my aunt Irene, when she was a kid, had pointed one up in the air that backfired and hit her eye, thus making her have to wear glasses for the rest of her life. My Roman Candle didn’t backfire, but I’ve had to wear glasses all the time since I was about 16, no doubt because I shot off thatRoman Candle.
    So as I sat back, safe and secure, watching the “professional” fireworks being shot off this July 4th, I wondered how my friends and I ever made it out of our childhood alive --- but was it ever fun. I think I’ll go out and light off one of those Snakes just to relive some of the excitement of my youth.

---Stan

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