Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Toast Spectacular!
Did you ever have one of those nights when you just could not fall asleep? Finally, after hours and hours of trying you doze off. But suddenly you are jolted awake by a horrible noise. That apparently was what happened to Marjorie Thompson of Orlando on May 25. She awoke to a horrible “WHOMP! WHOMP! WHOMP!” right over her house. She was not about to take it lying down. She barged out of the house with several bottle rockets and started “shooting” them at the helicopter. The problem was that it was a police helicopter. And the police don’t take kindly to being “shot” at even if it were only a bottle rocket. Thompson has been charged with shooting or throwing a deadly missile into an aircraft. This is not a laughing matter. The charge is a felony.
The only other time that I can remember bottle rockets being used as an attack weapon was back in the late seventies. I was helping to run a Jaycee’s firework stand. Business was slow and when business is slow then people, especially Jaycees, start horsing around. Fortunately, they were outside the firework stand. One picked up a bottle rocket, lit it and threw it at a compatriot. Within minutes bottle rockets were flying in every which direction. The fireworks stand was shut down in a hurry and I left. Bottle rockets were still flying back and forth.
On May 24, the police at Westhampton Beach, NY, confiscated a huge shipment of fireworks purchased in Maryland and illegally transported into New York. To demonstrate what could happen, they took 25 pounds of fireworks, placed them in a car and set them off. In a matter of seconds the car was a fireball. There was no mention of who owned the car. Sort of reminds me of a sign that I used to see in European airports. “Unattended bags will be placed on the tarmac and exploded.”
Not long after the first Jaycee fiasco, there was a second one. The Jaycees actually had a purpose for selling fireworks—to raise money for a community fireworks spectacular. It was a great year for fireworks and they had an ample stash. They carted them to the City Park in a van owned by the local owner of the radio station. A thousand or more people had gathered around on the grass to watch the extravaganza. The Jaycees in charge trotted back and forth to the van to extract bigger and better fireworks. They were saving the biggest of all for last. But it was a hot night and someone had left the sunroof on the van open. A rocket was ignited and went up a few short feet before it fizzed. Its trajectory had carried it right over the van. It dropped down into the van and exploded. Witnesses attest that what followed was the greatest fireworks displaced in the history of Magnolia, Ark. A barrage of rockets and other firepower quickly reduced the van to toast. But it was spectacular toast. Not everyone saw this grand finale. Most were busy gathering up their kids and scurrying for safety. The next morning all that was left of the van was a charred hull. I’m sure that it had more than 25 pounds of fireworks. And everyone in Magnolia knew who owned that van. I don’t think that it made the news on the radio. But it sure received front-page coverage in the local newspaper.
Did you ever have one of those nights when you just could not fall asleep? Finally, after hours and hours of trying you doze off. But suddenly you are jolted awake by a horrible noise. That apparently was what happened to Marjorie Thompson of Orlando on May 25. She awoke to a horrible “WHOMP! WHOMP! WHOMP!” right over her house. She was not about to take it lying down. She barged out of the house with several bottle rockets and started “shooting” them at the helicopter. The problem was that it was a police helicopter. And the police don’t take kindly to being “shot” at even if it were only a bottle rocket. Thompson has been charged with shooting or throwing a deadly missile into an aircraft. This is not a laughing matter. The charge is a felony.
The only other time that I can remember bottle rockets being used as an attack weapon was back in the late seventies. I was helping to run a Jaycee’s firework stand. Business was slow and when business is slow then people, especially Jaycees, start horsing around. Fortunately, they were outside the firework stand. One picked up a bottle rocket, lit it and threw it at a compatriot. Within minutes bottle rockets were flying in every which direction. The fireworks stand was shut down in a hurry and I left. Bottle rockets were still flying back and forth.
On May 24, the police at Westhampton Beach, NY, confiscated a huge shipment of fireworks purchased in Maryland and illegally transported into New York. To demonstrate what could happen, they took 25 pounds of fireworks, placed them in a car and set them off. In a matter of seconds the car was a fireball. There was no mention of who owned the car. Sort of reminds me of a sign that I used to see in European airports. “Unattended bags will be placed on the tarmac and exploded.”
Not long after the first Jaycee fiasco, there was a second one. The Jaycees actually had a purpose for selling fireworks—to raise money for a community fireworks spectacular. It was a great year for fireworks and they had an ample stash. They carted them to the City Park in a van owned by the local owner of the radio station. A thousand or more people had gathered around on the grass to watch the extravaganza. The Jaycees in charge trotted back and forth to the van to extract bigger and better fireworks. They were saving the biggest of all for last. But it was a hot night and someone had left the sunroof on the van open. A rocket was ignited and went up a few short feet before it fizzed. Its trajectory had carried it right over the van. It dropped down into the van and exploded. Witnesses attest that what followed was the greatest fireworks displaced in the history of Magnolia, Ark. A barrage of rockets and other firepower quickly reduced the van to toast. But it was spectacular toast. Not everyone saw this grand finale. Most were busy gathering up their kids and scurrying for safety. The next morning all that was left of the van was a charred hull. I’m sure that it had more than 25 pounds of fireworks. And everyone in Magnolia knew who owned that van. I don’t think that it made the news on the radio. But it sure received front-page coverage in the local newspaper.
