Fireworks...or citations? You choose.

So, tonight is New Year's Eve. Where I grew up, in Michigan, I'd never even dreamed that New Year's was a time to go and buy fireworks.

And even if I had fireworks, I'd never dream of going outside and popping them when the clock struck midnight. It's cold up there.

So, when I moved down to Texas and saw that warmer climates had two fireworks seasons instead of one, I was a little intrigued at the novelty.

Now it just seems like old hat.

But the more I worked for the Port Arthur News, the more a certain phrase kept getting thrown at me when doing the usual fireworks safety story. And that phrase is:

"It is illegal to pop fireworks in the city limits."

Um. Well, then where should we go?

Fireworks stands are set up on the outskirts of town because it's illegal to sell them in town. It is also against the law to pop fireworks near a fireworks stand.

And our area of Southeast Texas doesn't bode for much out-of-city-limit area. There's four cities connected by highway with the road dividing each city from one business and neighborhood to the next.

So, you're telling me that we can't pop them in town, and instead we all have to drive out to the country to do it...legally.

I asked this question to police officers, and fireworks vendors, and neither one could give me a straight answer. I got the same blank look like, I don't know what to tell you.

And how many cops do we see going around each year enforcing this? None. The same little jerks that live near me are going to keep me up for a few hours past midnight setting off the same sets of jumping jacks or blackcats that they do every year.

Why have a law that doesn't get enforced? Why sell them knowing people are going to break the law, however nonsensical it is?

Will this "law" stop you from celebrating with fireworks?

Grind that, and let me know.

Mike Tobias, Port Arthur News
mtobias@panews.com