In 1949 you could buy some pretty powerful fireworks, fairly cheap compared to today’s prices. A big choice of all kinds of roman candles, buzz bombs with metal propellers, you had to be very careful where you set them off. They usually went straight up, but sometimes they didn’t and would scoot along the ground until they hit something solid. If a person was in the way they could be hurt pretty bad. There was a piece called a serpent, when you set that off it went thru the air slithering like a big snake, leaving a big string of sparks behind it.
Each year since we had opened in 1947, the day after the celebration we would close the bar and cafe and have a big barbecue for the help and their families. In the morning we would all get together and clean up the mess the celebration left in the bar and parking lot then party in the afternoon.
This year I decided to do something extra. I had watched the fireworks at the Missoula Fairgrounds many years, so decided to put on one of my own. I had the Majestic Candy Co. order me a good assortment. At that time fireworks weren’t as expensive as they are today. Anyway for $75 I got a good assortment. When we finished up with our cleanup and had our barbecue, it was getting just about dark enough to start the fireworks. I had already sorted out and arranged the fireworks in the bed of the pickup. I drove it out to the middle of the parking lot and parked it.
I leaned the roman candles against the sidewalls of the pickup so they would take off in the air. The rest we would set off as we came to them. We had spread word around of what we intended to do, so we had a quite a crowd for Seeley Lake, about 200 people l would guess.
There wasn’t much of a town here then. Across the road from us down about 100 yards was Rovero’s garage and gas pumps. Down about 50 yards on our side was the grocery store and their gas pump. The rest of the area was still virgin forests, thick with trees.
When everything was ready to go, I used a long candle to light the fireworks. I lit two of the roman candles first, a few seconds apart. The first one went off perfect with a nice burst of stars. The second one went off too, but nobody noticed, because everything was exploding in the truck. The backfire from the candles had spread thru the bed of the truck, setting off the rest of the fireworks. There were all kinds of fireworks going off in every direction. People were screaming and running trying to get out of the way.
The candles were scooting along the ground and some heading for the garage and the gas pumps. I thought, oh my God, if they hit the gas pumps they’ll blow up the garage. Luckily none of them did. Some of them smashed into the side of the store but didn’t cause any damage. Those that were going off into the timber petered off and didn’t start any fires thank God. The serpents were taking off slithering every way, partly in the air and along the ground. Everything we had by now was igniting and going every which way. The people had pretty much scattered by now. Most were at a pretty safe distance.
The most dangerous ones were the buzz bombs with the propellers. They would go up in the air and back down and fly in all directions. They still had some of the people ducking not sure of where they were going. Still a lot of screaming and yelling going on. This only lasted for about 10 minutes, but it seemed like an hour. It would have been quite a show if I could have it on tape.
When it was all over and nobody hurt, we were all talking about how scary and exciting it was. It was the talk of the town for the next few weeks. Those that didn’t see it wished they had.
I never tried it again.
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