Where I live, fireworks are pretty much anything goes - the cities all have 'safe and sane' fireworks rules, but although my address says Everett, I'm actually in unincorporated Snohomish County - no such rules. The fireworks stands sell lots of non safe and sane rockets and mortars, and if that's not enough a short drive north to a Native American Indian Reservation will get you darn near anything your heart desires (technically, the fireworks are not to be removed from the Indian Reservation, but nobody pays much attention to that).
I have no personal experience, but right now this sounds just like a battlefield. A constant rumble of distant explosions, mixed with only slightly less regular sharp sounds of nearby bangs (many nearly indistinguishable from gun shots). We're so far north that it's just now getting dark, so it'll just be getting worse for the next half hour, then drop off a bit but won't stop until well after midnight.
I'll be heading outside shortly to watch the show with my dog (he doesn't mind too much, so long as I'm close by).
Back in 1976 (the USA bicentennial), Colorado Springs managed to snag the Commemorative Air Force (then called the Confederate Air Force, before that became politically incorrect) for a visit over the July 4 weekend. The Friday before I was driving around delivering auto parts (my summer job while I was in college) and I heard 'that sound' - looked up and saw a B-17, B-24, P-38, and P-51 flying in formation overhead. When I got home from work I immediately asked my dad if we could go up to C. Springs for the show. He was a WW II combat vet and I'd barely finished asking before he said YES! It was AWESOME! But the best part was, somewhere along the line, I got separated from my family. I wasn't to worried, I knew where the car was parked so if all else failed I could meet them there after the show, but I didn't have any money and I was getting hungry and thirsty. Then I walked by the CAF press entrance - I'd done some writing for the college engineering magazine, and they'd given me a press pass. I figured 'what the hell' and showed my press pass - and immediately got the VIP treatment. A big stack of literature, the foods here, soft drinks and beer over there. Oh, and when the flying part of the show starts, you can go sit way up there, beyond where the general crowd was allowed.
