Michigander here

[PieRoe]

Greetings from Michigan! I'm a newer part-time pyro/novice collector who enjoys the smaller items like crackers and rockets over mortars or cakes, for example. Normally, I lurk forums but I made an interesting find (at least for me) last weekend and thought I should share (doing the same on another pyro forum). Story time? (pics included)

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Welcome aboard PirRoe. Please share your findings!

[PyroJoeNEPA]

Welcome to PyroTalk PieRoe.

[PieRoe]

Thank you!

OK. Short story time:

For the first time in a year or so, I recently had the chance to visit the house where my Father grew up. Unfortunately, Grandma cannot live alone anymore, so that means going through all the stuff that has accumulated throughout 70 years. So, there I am just admiring the various stuff around the basement. Suddenly my Dad calls me over to the old Coal room where I had just been. Years ago, Grandpa converted it to a small sitting/fishing room after the furnace was converted to natural gas.

"Look," he says, "firecrackers and sparklers," pointing to an old shoe box on a shelf. Like out of a dream, I see the box with the words written on it and immediately say, "No way!" I open the top to see a paper bag inside. I reach into the bag and what do I pull out? A nice crisp 16 pack of DOT Thunder Bombs! (bomb logo). Well, further investigation yielded 15 packs of said Thunder Bombs, one 12 pack of Horse Brand Air Travel with Report, seven Ozark m 70 crackers, two bootleg salutes, and probably 70 or 80 loose firecrackers (assuming all TBs, all crimped ends) all star patterns except for two single Daisy wraps. I had never felt so lucky! My guess is that the box had been sitting there generally untouched probably since the 80's or 90's.

Michigan legalized "the good stuff" only about five or six years ago, so the older DOT items don't seem to be as prevalent here versus other States. I am kind of limited to the current UN items, as I simply don't have the resources to spend on DOT items even if I do find some. I wouldn't say I'm a collector, but it certainly is a start for me!

Some questions:

Does anyone know about when those particular bottle rockets were available? Are those m70 crackers merely 50mg?

Thanks for reading!

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[Kenny East]

Welcome to pyrotalk, I'm from Michigan as well...my guess is that the m-70s are over the 50mg limit due to who made them. Apollo of the Ozarks held that patent number in 1975.
Either way cool finds

[PieRoe]

Thanks Kenny East. K Zoo! I'm near GR.

I am somewhat familiar with those Ozark m-70s (through research), but did see a couple varied responses as to the amount of flash, etc. I'll just have to do my own "research" one of these days!

[Kenny East]

I used to live closer to GR but I'm back in the zoo, easiest way to test is with a lighter... Won't be any question after that.