”
How was your Fourth?
”
I asked rhetorically.
”
Quiet,
”
answered Susan. And when I expressed astonishment, she
added,
”
I live outside of town.
”
“How was your Fourth?” I asked rhetorically. “Quiet,” answered Susan. And when I expressed astonishment, she added, “I live outside of town.”
Independence Day inside Gilroy city limits was anything but quiet. I heard sporadic explosions days before. The intermittent bangs became continuous at nightfall on the Fourth, reached their zenith with the official, city-sponsored aerial display, and continued far into the gunpowder-wreathed night.
Our family and friends contributed two boxes of safe-and-sane fireworks to the festivities. Our youngest guests, almost-six-year-old Hannah and almost-four Justin, were enthralled with holding their very own sparklers, and with setting off the safe-and-sanes under the watchful tutelage of their father and the older “children” ages fifteen through 21.
In short, we had a fabulous, safe, and legal time here in Gilroy. But many of our fellow citizens were not so restrained. Along with the legal fireworks, we were treated to a constant display of illegal rockets‚ red glares and cherry bombs bursting in air.
Particularly noteworthy was the display at Glen View School, where a person or persons unknown sent up eight or 10 rockets in less than a minute: thunderous flowers of purple and green for the entertainment of the neighbors.
While I appreciated the show, I am ambivalent about illegal fireworks in Gilroy.
I love fireworks, all fireworks, and if I lived in a state where rockets and mortars and M-80’s are sold, I would undoubtedly strain July’s budget every year in mad celebration.
I love fireworks, all fireworks, and if I lived under the draconian tyranny of any other city in Santa Clara County, I would undoubtedly have bought my kids black-market sparklers, and thus undermined their respect for the law and the justice system.
But I don’t live in a state where rockets are legal, and I don’t live in a city where sparklers are not. I live in Gilroy, which is the only city in Santa Clara County where my kids could have grown up writing their names in the air on a warm summer evening.
In Gilroy, one can go to any one of a number of booths and buy a box of safe-and-sane fireworks, proceeds benefiting one’s choice of good causes. These legal fireworks sit on the ground and cast their sparks upward in glorious fountains.
(I hasten to add that safe-and-sane does not mean safe. One can hurt oneself with them, through carelessness, ignorance, inexperience or faulty manufacturing. Fire is fire, explosives are explosive.) Illegal fireworks cannot be purchased in California. They pack more of a punch, or leave the ground, or both.
I love fireworks, all fireworks, and I treasure my memories of watching aerial displays, waving sparklers, and setting off fountains.
I treasure the fact that my children have such memories, and I hope that many generations of Gilroyan children will have such memories: the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.
Legal fireworks in Gilroy had a narrow escape last year, after two firework related fires damaged structures.
A legal firework, used unsafely, ignited some bushes and spread to a nearby apartment building, causing an estimated $165,000 worth of damage. An illegal firework torched a house roof, causing damage of $300,000.
The fire department recommended to city council that legal fireworks be banned. After due deliberation, the city decided to staff additional police and fire, and to charge a 7.3 percent surcharge on sales of legal fireworks to pay for said staffing.
This year GPD and GFD confiscated more than 7,300 illegal fireworks.
Sgt. Kurt Svardal tells me that cities that ban the sale of legal fireworks probably have just as many illegal fireworks as we do, but that it is easier to figure out who is letting off illegals when the culprits are not surrounded by a city-wide celebration of people setting off legal fireworks. Herd immunity, as it were.
I love all fireworks, but I beg all illegal firework users to go elsewhere. Please do not imperil the legality of sparklers and fountains in Gilroy.
It is not fair to rely on the protective coloration provided by your law-abiding neighbors. Go to Cupertino or Watsonville to set off your out-of-state purchases – safely, of course. Keep legal fireworks legal in Gilroy.
