Time was fireworks were legal everywhere and were used in every famiy 4th of July celebration. I mentioned that we went to Montana in the summer when we could afford it. One summer (1954 I think) Mom and Dad had a firework stand on Independence Avenue in Northeast Kansas City to fund our trip.
The stand was a cheap temporary booth along the sidewalk. Mom went over to open up in early afternoon and left a meal for me to warm up for the family. When Dad got home from work the family would eat, then we would go relieve Mom for the evening. I went with Dad but I’m not sure any of the other siblings did.
At that time it was against the law to sell exploding fireworks in KC. We had cones, sparklers, Roman candles, etc. but nothing that would explode. One slow night someone wanted to buy a Screaming Fountain, which we had never sold. All he had was a $20 bill and we couldn’t make change so he didn’t buy it. ($20 went a lot farther then!) After he left we wondered what it did. Since it was a slow night, we decided to light one off. Dad lit it, and it started out with a spray and a high pitched scream. The scream slowly shifted down to lower and lower tones. When it got to a very low pitch … BLAM!!! It exploded very loudly. Dad quickly got rid of the remains and we took them off the shelf. Fortunately the frequent police patrols weren’t close by.
Not many years later there was a very tragic accident in a Katz Drugstore where a firweworks dispay caught fire and killed two young women working there. After that Kansas City banned most fireworks inside city limits.
That was the Summer after Lois was born. I don’t know that there are any pictures but if I find any I’ll update this post.