 "Photo: Daniela Trujillo/The Daily Texan")
Black Cats, Bottle Rockets, Roman Candles and Sparklers sit in a roadside shack like boxed-up stars, waiting for the time to come when they will be set ablaze and burn out.
But some may not get the chance, as small, independent stands begin to dry up. Local fireworks stand operator Lee Blankston, standing in that shack among those incendiaries, said the big stores don’t offer the same customer service.
“Everybody’s going to the big stores,” Blankston said, looking out over the stand’s wooden counter toward the white gravel parking lot — nothing is parked there but dust and rocks. “The big store says ‘OK, here’s what we got, go take a look,’ and then you’re on your own. I could stand here like a dummy too, but I wouldn’t make any sales.”
But Blankston said he knows people will come eventually to his American Fireworks stand, even with bigger stores eating up sales and city restrictions pushing stands out of city limits.
“It’s a way of expressing love for the country,” he said. “Think about the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ — ‘The rockets’,’ red glare.’ That’s the whole thing right there.”
The stand sits just north of Austin on Highway 620 — like every stand in the area, pushed outside city limits.
The sale, possession and use of fireworks is illegal in Austin, said Don Smith, an Austin fire marshal.
“There are certain exceptions and stipulations,” Smith said. “We do allow the small stuff — smoke bombs, sparklers, those trick noise makers — but no fountains, firecrackers or bottle rockets or anything like that. We always like to caution people, those little smoke bombs — even the ones that are about the size of a nickel — put out a little flame and the tip of those sparklers can be up to 5,000 degrees.”
Fines for violations average $248, Smith said.
He said the use of fireworks is legal throughout the county outside of city limits, despite a county burn ban.
“It has been real dry and the last couple of days didn’t really help,” Smith said. “Even if you’re outside of the city and in the county somewhere, you can’t be along the side of the roads. Be careful with [fireworks] and have a way to extinguish them. Any little spark can put some things off.”
He urged people to attend city-sponsored firework displays.
Fireworks stand attendants work through the Fourth of July weekends most years and miss the opportunity to attend public displays, but Blankston said customers provide entertainment. He said some have already provided him with one display.
“Some guys came by and said they lived in one of the houses on the hill across the street,” he said. “So that night, me and the wife were sitting here in some lawn chairs, and we got to see some of our sales go up in flames.”
The white gravel lot outside Blankston’s stand is empty on a Thursday afternoon as he waits, patient and sure.
“Fireworks have been around since the ancient times — they’re not gonna go away,” he said. “Explosions are just one of those things that really excite people.”
Meanwhile, Blankston watches over the white, wooden home of those Black Cats, Bottle Rockets, Roman Candles and Sparklers that wait to be sent home with family and friends drawn to his dusty lot. He knows before long, the cars will come and kick up some dust.
The moms and pops will bring their kids and buy up those explosives, just dying to excite, like his parents did with him and he did with his kids.
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