The Sweat Behind the Fireworks
JUNE 30, 2007 Listen to this Story
- Fireworks
- View the Slideshow
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Let's face it: Weekend America's John Moe wishes he were setting off fireworks. Right now. No one with any authority would really let him do it, so he did the next best thing and hung out with fireworks show planners in Washington State.
Notes from Senior Reporter John Moe:
One of my first memories of watching fireworks is from when I was about six or seven years old and my family went to see the show on Fourth of July at Angle Lake, near the airport in Seattle. As we watched the grand finale, everyone stood up to cheer, stretch, and collect their things. I watched one single firework (actually called an aerial shell, I learned this week) as it exploded into dozens of little flaming balls. Almost all of them went out right away but one kept falling to earth. And it was coming right toward us. "Why hasn't that one gone out?" I wondered. I was a bit concerned but really what could be done about it? Finally, still flaming, it came screaming down and landed smack dab on my dad's head. He brushed it away, he was fine, and then he stomped on it. It was like catching a foul ball, kind of.
Ever since then I was curious how those things got put together and I sacrificed several perfectly good bottle rockets in the effort to find out. Ken Julian, whom I interviewed this week, had the same curiosity and fascination but he got a lot more carried away. He's a former commercial radio DJ (you can hear it in his voice) whose hobby became an avocation and then finally a career. When I interviewed him, he had been supervising his career for 70 straight days of long hours but he still had that giddy enthusiasm for fireworks.
I asked him at one point why fireworks displays were considered something patriotic, especially since so much of the equipment comes from China. He wasn't sure. I'm not sure either. But I still find them pretty interesting even though I now always wear a hat when I go see them.
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- Music Bridge:
- Darling Nikki
- Artist: Millenial Territory Orchestra
- CD: MTO Vol. 1 (Sunnyside)
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