Celebrating America

Author's Note: I wrote this Personal Narrative about the time of my life while I was playing around with fireworks.

My family is known for doing stupid things -- especially around the fourth of July. We have the most amazing times with fireworks and end up wasting a lot of money just trying to get fireworks. My uncle is really the one who got me hooked on fireworks.  Since, I was a little kid going up north I always loved the boom and roar of the explosives. Being seven years old, I loved to light matches and listen to the snap, crackle, and pop of the firecrackers that I was given. Of course, my mom was worried giving an immature little boy fireworks, but my dad just laughed at the thought of anything bad happening. This is the story of us now, getting caught for doing stupid things.

“ Push the canoe out, we have everything and we are set. Let’s go blow some stuff up!!”

It was pitch black, I could barely see where I was paddling and the moonlight reflected perfectly off the surface of the lake, and you could hear the sound of crickets chirping in the background.  We finally stopped and pulled out the lighters. I could feel the canoe bang when something was lit and shot up into the air, it gave me an amazing feeling inside. Crowds from all over cheering, was really great. For me and my uncle, that amazing feeling is never enough.

“Dude, let’s light this off, it is suppose to be propelled from a tube. We are good enough pyros to not kill ourselves doing this..right?!”

“YES. Let’s do this.”

As I flicked my fingers back to strike the lighter, I have huge butterflies of what can happen in a matter of seconds. As the fuse is laying on a block of wood, we are prepared to throw it in the air for a wonderful last firework, but it all goes downhill from there. My uncle attempts to pick it up, but burns his hand, and it drops onto the deck of the canoe. It is then propelled into the air, except there is no tube for it to be launched out of. When sparks started to fly, it rocked the boat back and forth to the point where we were our stomachs.

“I’ve got to jump out of here!”

The splash of the water echoed throughout the tiny lake that we were in.  With, our canoe lighting up the lake in flames, I stared at it in disbelieve.  When, our canoe finally was cool enough to go back into, we were frozen. It was a cold night and the water made it even colder. We finally reached the house, drenched and freezing. Water dripped from our clothes but we really didn’t care because the adrenaline in our bodies were still near danger level.

“What on earth just happened?!”

“I think we almost died”

The night was coming end, we dried off and were wrapped in cozy blankets. I still had some firecrackers left, and of course I wanted to go light them off. As, I light them off I think about how much fun it was to almost be blown up, and the reason why I love fireworks in the first place. So, I will continue to light off fireworks without any accidents of course.