Playing with Fireworks, 1996, by Jeremy Sutter and Ben Smith

From MemoryArchive

Who: Jeremy Sutter and Ben Smith
What: Children experimenting with fireworks
When: 1996
Where: Blue Mounds, Wisconsin

There is a time in every man's life that starts with fireworks and ends with emotional pain. I was ten years old at the time, and was not accustomed to the exhilirating experience of bottle rocket or roman candle wars; Ben Smith was. Ben had issues, and I experienced the effects of the issues on numerous occasions.

He had recieved a package, one containing a refrigerator filled to the brim with bottle rockets, fire crackers, roman candles, and various other sorts of small scale weaponry. We had spent hours drooling over the loud sounds and explosions we could create using different combinations of fireworks. But blowing up GI Joes and other dolls was not enough for Ben, so he came after me. He loured me into his treehouse, locked the only entrance, and through firecrackers through the window.

The frightening laugh of my dear friend echoed over the crashes and bangs of firecrackers. Although I left that treehouse without physical damage, the terror induced by my borderline psychopathic friend, will haunt me for the rest of my life.