I remember bottle rocket wars, too! We used to divide up into two teams on either side of a bridge out in the country, and we launched the rockets at each other from our opposing sides of the bridge. We fired a good many along the flat road itself to aim at the opposing team's feet. We liked to see them hop and dance to avoid the surface rockets as well as dodge the airborne ones. I can't believe we did that now that I'm Mrs. Safety First. It's a wonder no one lost any body parts.

This year in the part of Texas where I'm from, fireworks are banned. People can't even set up stands and sell them. We've had two years of drought, and the fire danger is too high.