Do you remember the song 'Henry the VIII' that was made famous by Herman's Hermits in the mid-1960s? Basically, the song continues to repeat itself over and over again with 'I'm Henry the Eighth I am, Henry the Eighth I am I am, and even tosses in the lyrics the 'second verse, same as the first'.
We thought about that song when we decided to write this editorial the week before the Fourth of July. Looking back, something about fireworks safety has filled this space in every issue before the Fourth of July and New Year's Eve since we can remember.
We don't exactly repeat ourselves exactly like the song does, but the message is basically the same. We won't bother you with a lot of statistics about firework safety because they haven't changed over the years.
Fireworks and the Fourth of July go together like peanut butter and jelly – you can't have one without the other.
A few years ago we had two people in our area get seriously injured when fireworks exploded in their hands. In that split second, their lives changed forever.
We would just like to remind people that fireworks are nothing more than exploding bombs and if they go off in your hand they can take fingers with them.
Alabama Fireworks here in Flomaton has a lot of fireworks for sale and we hope people buy them up and have a good time. But we also want to repeat ourselves by saying that you need to be careful.
We could give you a long list of dos and don'ts, but it simply boils down to common sense. That's it.
Don't turn children loose with fireworks without supervision; don't assume every firework will fire the same way every time you fire one. We've all seen bottle rockets head into the sky until that one goes ballistic and comes back at us. The fun of shooting fireworks leaves quickly when someone gets hurt.
Our goal is to not have to write a story over the next two weeks about a fireworks accident in our communities.
Have a happy Fourth of July and God Bless America.
