For those of us that are just joining, I am a licensed pyrotechnician. I do commercial fireworks displays. The picture above was in the Skagit Valley Herald in 2006. I was standing underneath all of those sparks! Also, the profile picture that I have was from the same show, just a different photo.
Last year, we had a terrible accident that severely injured my eldest brother and minorly injured the crew, including myself. It was a freak accident, nothing we did caused it.
Here is the news link: http://www.komonews.com/news/8318837.html
((My brother is now fully recovered. He has a six-inch plate in his arm and his burns are all healed))
On Friday, it will be the one year anniversary of blowing up. It's with sadness that we're not doing the firework shows any more. It was with great soul-searching that we each made our decisions. Our parents and families all requested that we no longer do it and it's difficult to tell them no. My sixteen year old niece wrote a poem for school about the accident that I could only bear to read once. After that, my decision was made.
Yet, a part of me is breaking. This is the first time in I don't know how long that I won't be doing fireworks on some level. I am at a loss.
Wait. Let me back up a bit. A little history:
My dad began doing fireworks before I was born. 1963. It began as a lark: two men, drinking, (of course) and shooting off fireworks on a little dock in the middle of the lake. Forty-five years later, it grew to a crew of 8 and a $10,000 budget.
Both of my brothers grew up with the show. Each of them hold licenses since they were 18. I remember being about 9 and sitting on an equipment box, watching for sparks. My dad started us early!
The crews consist of friends and spouses. My crew is my husband, my brother-in-law, my nephew and two of my oldest & dearest friends. You didn't date one of us kids without getting roped into a least trying it. Understandably, many of our friends declined our offers to go "blow shit up" as we fondly refer to it.
But this year, we sit on the shore and watch.
So, in trying to lighten my heart here are a few stories about fireworks:
I finally got my license in 2000. I hadn't needed it until then but we were busy enough that I had my own shows so a license was required. My brothers and I were eating dinner about three hours before the show at the kitchen table. Strangely, there was no one else about. Usually there are tens of people hanging around. Little Brother (as I call him even though he's five years older) mentioned casually "Well, because you have your license now, I am going to stay on shore." Oh, okay. No big deal. Brother Dear (my eldest brother by 10 years...the name is from the Snoopy cartoons) then leans back and says "Yeah, I guess I am too." Wait. What??
I've had my license a month, I am not comfortable on water and they're both staying on shore!?!?! WTH! I look up and they're both grinning. The torch had been passed.
So, out we went. My first solo show and it's the biggest show we have. Yeah. No Pressure.
As we are being towed out to the middle of the lake, a barrel that keeps the dock afloat popped out from underneath the dock and floated away. I am trying not to have a panic attack when my friend Brad runs to the front of the dock and yells "ICEBERG! DEAD AHEAD!"
I laughed so hard I thought I was going to wet myself.
And the show went fine. The brothers were proud.
My favorite show is at a speedway. There are 12,000 people in the crowd and it feels like you can look them all in the eye, they are so close. The show is choreographed to music. It took us a few shows to get used to it but eventually we found our groove. The last show we did there I realized that we had figured it out when I heard the crew singing along as we shot the show.
(also during that show, someone sneezed and we all called out "Bless You!" ;-)
Way back in the day, we did a show in the middle of a cow pasture. (Glamourous, huh?)
One of our friends set up a stereo, unbeknownst to us, and as the show began I heard the beginning of the theme of Mission Impossible. Standing in the middle of a dark field and hearing the music play, I thought I was losing my mind but I turned to see the speakers and laughed out loud.
And we've done plenty of shows in the rain. The worst by far was at the same speedway. It was so slippery we couldn't stand, couldn't walk. Everyone was essentially Army-crawling to get the show finished. By the end, we were caked in clay. We were laughing so hard that we couldn't catch our breath. Imagine, we all wear white cover-alls (we look like Oompa-Loompas) I had to throw away my boots because they were beyond cleaning.
So, I am sure that we'll be telling these stories - and more - on Friday. If I have more pictures, (happy ones) I will post them.
While you're watching fireworks this year, think of me! I'll be somewhere pouting. (:-O
No comments:
Post a Comment