I literally have warm memories of the Fourth, because as an accident-prone person, I tend to get burnt when playing with fireworks. Most of the Fourths that I remember were spent in Minnesota, where my mother’s side of the family typically has their annual family reunion on our national holiday.

Some of the memories I associate are four- wheeling, ice cream making, chilled watermelon, smoked barbeque, and, of course, fireworks.

Fireworks are a staple of the celebration of the Fourth of July and many kids have memories of smoke bombs, fountains, and sparklers or some of the more dangerous kinds like firecrackers, bottle rockets, and so forth.

Stories about people setting bottle rockets off in their hand and exploding roman candles sort of turned me away from the more explosive fireworks. Though I was still able to burn myself from sparklers a few times, of all things.

Because of the risks involved with fireworks, they are illegal here in Illinois. Some of the more kid-friendly ones like sparklers and smoke devices are still legal here, but the more explosive ones are banned. Despite the ban in Illinois, Indiana has fireworks for sale legally. The Indiana border is not that far of a drive from Charleston so anyone around here wishing to acquire illegal fireworks does not need to put in a whole lot of effort.

I’m from Calumet City, which is in the near south suburbs of Chicago and is also literally on the Illinois-Indiana boarder. It’s basically a Calumet City tradition to take the three-minute drive to Indiana and go fireworks shopping to bring back home to celebrate the our nations independence. In recent years, people running this errand to Indiana have fallen under increased scrutiny as municipal and state police patrol the border and may stop people they believe to be carrying illegal fireworks.

Something law enforcement does is patrol the parking lots for fireworks sellers and eye Illinois license plates in the parking lots.

Because of all this, one begins to wonder why all the fuss over these explosive items. I don’t find fireworks to be all that appealing anymore and I prefer to go to a city show rather than setting them off myself. For whatever reason, kids love fireworks and they love to light them off themselves. The slight lack of safety is one of the reasons kids like fireworks. Since they like to light them off, they partake in it and as a result, injuries occur sometimes and to varying degrees.

Safety and common sense is key with fireworks. That message can’t resonate with everyone, but it doesn’t hurt to talk about it. The truth is there are some people that handle fireworks intelligently and others who don’t. Small children obviously shouldn’t be allowed to handle fireworks. Fireworks should be used away from people, in a safe area. Going by simple common sense will allow most people to have a safe and happy Fourth of July.