I work on a fireworks crew, mostly as a hobby. On the 3rd, we had a show at Seymore-Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. I believe the actual temperature was 103 with a heat index of over 110. I expected to be setting up on tarmac and was relieved to find that our site was grass.. on the base golf course, if you can believe it!
We started building the racks for for a nearly 1,000 shell show about noon. The tubes are plastic HDPE, in wood racks of 5 to 10 tubes, depending on caliber. These racks are nailed together with planks into a stable structure that will not tip under any circumstance. The heat was amazing! I drank what seemed like gallons of gator-aide and water and coated myself with sunscreen... which only seemed to increase the sweating! We worked constantly in direct sun until the 9:00 show-time, hand-fired the show.. the concussion of a 5-inch mortar going off just 3 feet away is impressive! Worse thing is, you don't get to watch the show when you hand-fire!
After a 25 minute show and a 15 minute cool-down. then we had to breakdown the racks and reload the truck. We didn't finish until 1:00 AM and I was well and truly exhausted. We had another show at Atlantic Beach NC on the 4th. At the beach, we did have a constant breeze but more direct sun and we didn't finish until 2:00 AM. Slept six hourse and drove home. I was eight pounds lighter even after the gallons of liquid I drank.
I'm beginning to think that this just might be more fun than this old man can stand!
We started building the racks for for a nearly 1,000 shell show about noon. The tubes are plastic HDPE, in wood racks of 5 to 10 tubes, depending on caliber. These racks are nailed together with planks into a stable structure that will not tip under any circumstance. The heat was amazing! I drank what seemed like gallons of gator-aide and water and coated myself with sunscreen... which only seemed to increase the sweating! We worked constantly in direct sun until the 9:00 show-time, hand-fired the show.. the concussion of a 5-inch mortar going off just 3 feet away is impressive! Worse thing is, you don't get to watch the show when you hand-fire!
After a 25 minute show and a 15 minute cool-down. then we had to breakdown the racks and reload the truck. We didn't finish until 1:00 AM and I was well and truly exhausted. We had another show at Atlantic Beach NC on the 4th. At the beach, we did have a constant breeze but more direct sun and we didn't finish until 2:00 AM. Slept six hourse and drove home. I was eight pounds lighter even after the gallons of liquid I drank.
I'm beginning to think that this just might be more fun than this old man can stand!
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