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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009
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 OPINION 
10

Dick Cavett: Fireworks Way Better in the Good Ol' Days

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(Newser) – Talk show legend Dick Cavett didn’t just like fireworks as a kid. “I loved them,” he writes in the New York Times. Not the pro displays, and definitely not “the despised ‘safe & sane’ fountains, sprinklers and snakes” that “girls and sissies liked.” No, he liked “the big stuff. The heavy ordnance." Think cherry bombs. And when he was a Nebraska kid in the '40s, you could buy as much as you pleased.

“LAY ON GROUND. LIGHT FUSE. RETIRE QUICKLY,” the directions read. “I pity anyone for whom those words were not a feature of youth.” Now the “do-gooders have legislated away everything but sparklers,” even though sparklers cause more injuries than every other kind of firework. “I long for the good old days,” he writes. “I find it hard to believe that the resonant date will pass and I won’t light a single fuse.”

Mike and Bernie Winters, dressed as a tramp and a guy, collecting money for the Variety Club of Great Britain fund for under privileged children, October, 1968.
Mike and Bernie Winters, dressed as a tramp and a guy, collecting money for the Variety Club of Great Britain fund for under privileged children, October, 1968.   (Getty Images)
A girl lights a firework in this 1952 file photo.
A girl lights a firework in this 1952 file photo.   (Getty Images)
Fireworks shoot past a nearly full moon in this file photo.
Fireworks shoot past a nearly full moon in this file photo.   (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
People watch fireworks in Newtown, Pa., in this file photo.
People watch fireworks in Newtown, Pa., in this file photo.   (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
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10 comments
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Reader64481089
Jul 4, 09 11:03 AM CDT
I do understand his views on a society who want morals legislated so they don't have to be bothered teaching the children right from wrong as well as a society which wants the government to legislate Safety again so the world in which they live is totally safe but I do not for a fact miss fireworks around where I live for in truth the murder rate jumps each year at this time an I have to wonder is it the fact that the fireworks help cover the sounds of screams of the victims....sad but true. Reply
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IN RESPONSE:
Sauerkraut
Jul 4, 09 11:55 AM CDT
well maybe its time for you to go ahead and leave Detroit.
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IN RESPONSE:
UrUndertaker
Jul 4, 09 2:52 PM CDT
Reader, I am so sorry. I notice it often seems those who lack life experiences to quip trash such as "Perhaps it is time you moved" showing they lack the knowledge of how life tie's us to a place and perhaps trap some. It would be much easier to move when things get tough but if people had always done that this country would not be the great place it is. Detroit and Michigan were for a long time a leader in the country and Unions set the pace allowing most Americans to break free of the slums and indeed earn a livable wage. Now that times are difficult those still with a job and such want to forget about the hard working people who actually blazed the trail for others to prosper to the point they now live. We often forget as the years go by and we have "put down roots" that those same roots entangle us, out homes are worth less due to the housing collapse so we loose our equity, or one of our family is indeed to ill to jump up and move to a new location and begin again. It would pay at times if one actually thought before opening their mouth and exposing their lack of humanity and for that I apologize. My and my families hopes dreams and wishes go out to you on this holiday in hopes your destiny becomes brighter in the near future.
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Doctor_Zaius
Jul 4, 09 11:09 AM CDT
My county allows just about anything. I have $400.00 worth of Mortars, Rockets and Explosives that would probably destroy my garage if they went off at the same time. The fuses on some of these are bout the thickness of a No. 2 pencil. Nothing beats large explosions. Reply
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IN RESPONSE:
Ioptout
Jul 4, 09 11:28 AM CDT
Have fun Doctor_Z and Happy 4th of July!
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