Thread: My Christmas In July

Labels – Don’t Get Caught Up In Labels At Your Local Tent. Just Because The Box Label Is Pretty Don’t Mean The Product Is Any Good! I Can Put Cow Pies In A Fancy Bag Or Box And When You Open It Up It Is Still Going To Smell Like Cow Pies! Some Of The Best Stuff I Have Ever Seen Was In A Plain Jane Box!

Questions – Just Because Your 30 To 40 Years Old And Have Kids Don’t Be Afraid To Ask Questions At Your Local Stand Or Tent. You Won’t Look Stupid In Front Of The Wife And Kids Or Anyone Else. But You Sure Will When Your Show Don’t Go Off As Planned. Its Your Money, You Worked Hard For It And You Deserve The Right To Know What Your Paying For! If The Stand Worker Can’t Answer Your Questions, Or You Get This Old Standard Answer “it Shoots Flaming Balls.” Run Out The Door! I Don’t Know All The Answers, I Still Learn Something New About Fireworks Every Day! But We Take The Time To Study About The Products We Are Selling! Heck If You Ask One Of Us, We Will Take The Extra Time To Either Tell You Which Order To Shoot Your Cakes In. Or We Will Take A Sharpie And Mark Each Cake With A Number Of What Order To Shoot Them In To Get The Most Out Of Your Show! If Your Local In The Springfield, Mo Area Just Pm Me! Just Tell Me What Your Budget Is For Your Show And We Will Put Together A Show For You As A Custom Order. We Do It Each Year For A Lot Of Our Customers Who Only Want The Best. We Will Mark Each Cake With The Shoot Order And How Far Apart To Shoot Them If It’s A Big Show And We Are Having You Shoot Double Cakes At The Same Time. Yes We Have Customers Who Do This Every Year And They Have Budgets From $100.00 To Over $1500.00. I Would Say The Average Is About Custom Show Is About $250.00 Most Of Them Going To Families Who Pool There Money Together. We Also Have Churches Who Request Custom Shows Be Put Together For Youth Groups. And We Have Neighbor Hood Groups Who Pool Their Money Together And Call And Ask For A Custom Order. And Yes I Have Gone Out And Even Shot Class C Shows For Customers! The Company Has Even Done Class B And C Shows For Weddings, Birthday Parties, And Retirement Parties! One Of The Best Shows I Ever Got To Shoot Was For A Group Of Returning Troops At The Armory In Aurora, Mo! I Was Very Proud To Be Able To Shoot That Show For Them! We Did A Little Class C And Some Class B Stuff.

Shop Early – I Hear This Well We Wait Until Right Before July 4th To Try To Get Discounts. Most Places Don’t Discount Oh Yeah There Is All This Stuff On The Radio About Buy One Get One Free Here Or There. This Is Just A Bunch Of Cow Potty! Everyone Pays Just About The Same Amount For The Product. The Chain Tents As I Call Them Advertise A Lot To Get You In The Door, Oh You Might Save A Little On Bottle Rockets Or Firecrackers But The Cakes Cost You $5.00 To $10.00 Or More A Piece And You May Be Not Purchasing The Quality Of Product! They Have To Pay For All That Advertising Some How! We Are Not Selling Fireworks Just For Our Health, We Need To Make Money. And While You’re Waiting To Right Before The 4th To Purchase Your Fireworks Your Neighbor Has The Good Stuff Already Purchased And In His Garage. Most Of The Prime Stuff Is Purchased Early. Selling Season Starts In Missouri June 20th. We Will Have A Lot Of Customers Coming In That Day! Granted We Try To Figure What We Are Going To Need And What We Sold Last Year We Will Try To Keep The Higher End Product On The Shelves. But If It Is The 1st, 2nd Or 3rd And We Are Running Out Of Product It’s A Good Chance Our Wholesaler Has Been Out For A Couple Of Days Of That Hot New Item! And We Are Not Going To Try To Have A Bunch Of Inventory Left Over That The Boss Is Going To Have To Pay Taxes On!

Punks – No Not The Kids Down The Street! Hey While Your At Your Local Stands, Be Sure And Pickup Some Of Those Larger Type Punks For The Kids To Use On Some Of That Larger Stuff That They Can Shoot Off With Your Help! You Might Have To Purchase Them But Normally If You Ask Nice And Say They Are For The Kids You Might Get A Couple For Free!

Take The Kids! – You Take Them Fishing Don’t You? Yep Old Dw Still Remembers Those Trips To Riverside, Mo When I Lived In Kc, To The Fireworks Stores! Wow So Much Gun Powder And Not Enough Time To Shoot All Of It Off! My Poor Dad And Mom Never Would Let Me Get Anything Besides Sparkers, Smoke Balls, Bottle Rockets And Fire Crackers! They Were Always Afraid That I Would Burn Something Down Or Get Hurt! When I Got My Missouri Professional Shooters License Over 3 Years Ago, Mom Said Quit Playing With That Stuff You’re Going To Get Hurt And Be Careful With That Stuff. Funny Mom Said The Same Thing About The Boat After She Found Out We Purchased One. I Told Mom That If I Got Hurt I Was At Least Doing Something I Loved To Do! She Almost Passed Out When She Heard I Was Working With 12 Inch Commercial Firework Stuff. Wife And I Took Up A Couple Of Limits About 30 Crappie To Mom And Dads For Them To Fry Up! I Got A Call The Next Evening From Mom They Enjoyed The Crappie. But She Asked Me If I Was Sure That They Were All Crappie? Normally The Fish You Bring Us Are Not As Big As Those Fish Are You Sure There Wasn’t Any Bass In Them? I Told Her It Was All Because Of The Boat That I Was Catching Larger Fish. My Folks Have Never Been To One Of The Shows That My Crew And I Have Shot. Last Year I Got To Shoot A Show In Front Of My Aunt In Bolivar, Mo And She Loved It All Her Lady Friends Were Sitting With Her! Going To Shoot The City Of Bolivar, Mo Fireworks Show Again This Year!

Ratings – How Does Old Dw Rate Different Fireworks? There Are Several Things I Look At When I Am Judging Or Rating Fireworks. Color, Is The Color A True Color, Is The Blue A True Looking Blue Or Is The Red Color A True Looking Red And Not Washed Out Looking More Like Pink Than Red. If The Color Is Washed Out More In Likely It Is A Cheaper Product. The Lift Is There A Good Pop When It Comes Out Of The Tube Or How High Does It Go Into The Air, Is There A Tail To It Or Is There Color In The Tail. The Break, After The Firework Goes Up Into The Sky And Opens Up. How Hard Is The Break, Is It A Good Pop Or Snap. And When It Breaks Does It Open Up Good And Hold Its Shape Or Does It Just Fall Out All Over The Place. The Cheaper Stuff Don’t Open Up As Good And Hold Its Shape. The Time It Lasts! No One Is Going To Want Something That Don’t Last Very Long. Packaging Or Labels, I Don’t Look At It! If It Has Quality It Will Sell. Price I Never Consider It Unless It’s Down To Two Products That Are The Same And Have The Same Quality! Quality Will Always Sell! People Don’t Want Junk When The Buy Fireworks! We All Remember That Cake, Cone, Fountain Or Other Item That Didn’t Last Very Long And The Colors Didn’t Look Good.
Last Thing On Old Dw’s List – Be Safe And Have Fun! I Don’t Want To See Anyone Getting Hurt Out There! There Are Too Many Fish To Catch!

And Thanks To All Of You That Have Taken The Time To Read This Thread, Post Comments, And Also Pm Me Comments And Messages! I Have Tried To Cover Every Type Of Common Consumer Fireworks On The Market Today. Every Year Visit A Lot Of Other Fireworks Tents And Stores During The Season And Out Of The Season To See What They Are Doing And For My Own Research, So I See What They Are Doing And The Stuff They Are Selling. I Go To Buyers Shows, Study Dvd’s And Websites For Information Year Around. The More Knowledge I Gain The Better I Am At Helping Our Customers. I Am Not Into This To Make Money Off This Post. This Is Just My Way In Returning My Knowledge Of Fireworks To The Community Of Crappie.com That Has Helped Me With Greater Knowledge Of Crappie Fishing! And I Hope You Have Learned Something From This Post!
I Figure I Am Too Ugly And Not Fat Enough To Be A Santa And Wife Would Divorce Me If I Let My Beard Get Any Longer. I Love Working With Kids, So I Guess I Am Just Going To Be A Fireworks Guy When I Grow Up! Every Time I See A Kid Come Into The Store And Their Eyes Get Big! It Brings Back Memories Of How Much I Enjoyed Fireworks As A Kid! Even Today At Age 49 I Can Still Have Fun Shooting Off Just Normal Smoke Balls, Sparklers, Lady Fingers, Roman Candles And Bottle Rockets. Smoke Balls And Water Fire Crackers Are Really Neat In The Snow!

Remember To Buy Early For The Best Selection! Pm Me With Any Questions You Might Have!

Thanks,

Dan

Get Your Lists Ready! I Happened To Be Up There Yesterday Doing Some Last Minute Stuff. I Had A Guy Knock On The Door And Asked If He Could Come In And Make His List Out And Be Ready For Saturday Morning. I Personally Don't Know How Good The Sales Will Be This Year Due To The Economy. Some Of The Large Wholesalers Did Cut Back On Their Inventory This Year, So That Has Limited The Selection A Little Bit. But Alot Of People Have Been Calling And Placing Custom Orders, So Who Knows. Pw58 And I Will Be Up There At The Office On Thursday Evening Putting Up Signs And Banners Outside.

I Do Know That Some Of The Commercial Shows Like Firefall In Springfield And The City Of Nixa Have Canceled Due To Lack Of Money!

If You Have Any Questions Just Pm Me. The Fireworks Office Is Just East Of Pleasant Hope On Hwy 215. So If Your In The Area Just Stop And Say Hello.

I have learned a LOT reading these posts! Thanks for all your efforts and may your sell LOTS this year! Good luck and be safe!!!

Originally Posted by DMW1960

Ok So You Want To See The Size Of Firecrackers The Wife And I Play With. Most Of The Shows We Do Are Electric Fire But We Still Do Some Hand Fire. A Electric Fire Is When We Take Little Blasting Cap Wired Things Aka Known In The Business As E-matches And Stick Them Into The Fuse. This Is Then Wired Into A Rail With Lots Of Different Clues Aka Plug Ins. This Rail Has A 100' Cable Attached To It And That Cable Goes To A Pegboard Type Of Thing That We Use To Set Off Each Firework With A 12 Volt Battery. I Personally Enjoy The Hand Fire The Best Just Me A 6 Second Fuse And A Flair. But By Law We Can't Hand Light Anything Over 6 Inches In Dia.

You Know Your Having Fun When You In The Middle Of A Bunch Of Loaded Fireworks Racks With A Flair. And The Fire Is Falling Out Of The Sky All Around You.

WOW
Be safe with that stuff, glad you are trained to shoot that stuff, some of it looks like it could reach Marshall !!

Originally Posted by rugsrme

WOW
Be safe with that stuff, glad you are trained to shoot that stuff, some of it looks like it could reach Marshall !!

LOL NOTICE I HAVE NOT POSTED PICTURES OF WHAT CAN GO WRONG? ITS BAD IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG! JUST A 3 INCH SHELL CAN GO STRAIGHT THRU A 3/4 INCH PIECE OF PLYWOOD AND LEAVE A NICE 3 INCH HOLE IN IT!

DW, thanks for the post. I haven't had the opportunity to light off any fireworks in quite a long time. This year probably won't be any different, but man, when I was a kid, like you, there was Christmas and the 4th. We had a place on the Mississippi River where there were about 4 or 5 of us kids that just we hawg wild with the fireworks. My 2 year old is a bit young, but in the next few years I guarantee we'll be lighting off some "cakes". I've read the whole post and just wanted to thank you for all the information.

Originally Posted by Camalama

DW, thanks for the post. I haven't had the opportunity to light off any fireworks in quite a long time. This year probably won't be any different, but man, when I was a kid, like you, there was Christmas and the 4th. We had a place on the Mississippi River where there were about 4 or 5 of us kids that just we hawg wild with the fireworks. My 2 year old is a bit young, but in the next few years I guarantee we'll be lighting off some "cakes". I've read the whole post and just wanted to thank you for all the information.

CAMALAMA,

NOPE THE THANKS GOES TO FOLKS LIKE YOU! I JUST FIGURED I WOULD SHARE MY INSIDE KNOWLEDGE OF FIREWORKS TO THE CDC MEMBERS. JUST MY WAY OF PAYING THE MEMBERS BACK FOR HELPING ME WITH CRAPPIE FISHING!

OH AND ACCORDING TO MY CLASS C BOSS THEY ARE NOT TOO YOUNG TO LEARN ABOUT FIREWORKS! HIS 3 YEAR OLD GRANDSON LOVES THOSE PULL STRING PARTY POPPERS! BUT YOU HAVE TO ALSO REALIZE THAT HIS DAD WHO OWNS THE CLASS B COMMERCIAL GRADE FIREWORKS BUSINESS HAD HIM AT COMMERCIAL GRADE SHOWS BEFORE HE WAS 2 YEARS OLD!

DAN

I Can See It Now A 3" Hole In The Side Of The Ss. Rugs While On Maple Leaf Lake.......... Do They Come With Radar Guidance On Them????