Fireworks got big bang for fewer bucks back when

Image
  • Alt Text for Image
    Alt Text for Image
Body

The Fourth of July has passed and now our dog has come out from under the bed. That had been her safe zone the past few weeks when the booms from fireworks broke the silence of our neighborhoods.

In our clan fireworks were not a part of the Fourth of July celebration. The grandkids are too old and now don’t get too excited about a noisy celebration. Still I couldn’t help but remember the fireworks of my youth and compare those to today’s fireworks.

When in my young years I can recall taking $5 of my newspaper carrier money and buying Black Cat firecrackers, cherry bombs, silver hammerheads, a few Roman candles, a rocket or two and a couple of stink bombs. My $5 fireworks purchase lasted a whole week of shooting and I even had some change left over for a drink.

Looking at the fireworks advertised in this year’s newspaper inserts, a buyer had choices of such things as turbo-charged missiles, war machines and 500 gram selections that were 10 for $300. If I counted correctly one firework’s circular offered over 200 items. The only fireworks I recognized were the Black Cat firecrackers and Roman candle selection.

My, how times have changed. ***

The past few years I’ve vowed to not feed the birds at our backyard feeder. Each year I break that vow. The feeder averages being reloaded with a minimum of 64 ounces of birdseed daily. Naturally, two squirrels also like the birdseed and I’m too soft-hearted to deny them access until I toughen up and they climb onto my feeder instead of feeding from ground level. Also appearing are a few families of Grackles who politely scatter seed on the ground for themselves and the squirrels. Dropping seeds on the ground isn’t so bad, but the Grackles apparently have a digestive problem bombarding our deck and autos.

Now, my vow may have to be reviewed. A rabbit has made its appearance at our feeder this past week. We’ve created what seems to be a local zoo and even our dogs have become nervous with the feeder activities. ***

It has been reported that American people carry 12.5 million pounds of keys in purses and jackets and lose five tons of them weekly. ***

A bachelor is a cowardly, cruel, selfish male who is cheating some deserving woman out of a man to reform.

RL Furse is publisher emeritus of the News-Register