South Carolina's fireworks are drawing huge crowds of out-of-staters into Fort Mill this week.
I went to a few fireworks stores off Carowinds Boulevard yesterday for a story in today's paper, and it was next to impossible to find a local shopper. Everyone was from North Carolina.
One lady drove from Virginia just to buy fireworks. She said Carowinds Boulevard was the closest place. Another man took a trek from High Point, N.C., to load up.
North Carolina has banned most fireworks. But it sure isn't stopping anyone from buying them. They're just bringing the dollars to the Palmetto State. Some bills at the register were over $1,000. For paper and gun powder.
I suppose its somewhat fitting that on July 4, so many Americans celebrate by rebelling against the establishment, shooting fireworks where its not legal. After all, this country was started by a bunch of rebels thinking they no longer needed to play by the king's rules.
At one store yesterday, the rebellious behavior was even encouraged.
"Don't let the cops getcha," a clerk joked with a shopper who admitted he was smuggling the goods across the border.
Every year, people talk about safety and maybe tightening local laws to prevent fireworks mishaps. But you won't hear the retailers in Fort Mill complain about it. July 4 might as well be Christmas for these businesses.
no pants
I was up near Carowinds today. I live close by in Fort Mill. Traffic all over the place, fireworks by the armful. Love it. I want no quiet suburbia. One of the fireworks joints has young people, late teens or early 20s probably, holding signs and waving to get customers to the store before or after they hit Carowinds. I of course did not look at the women in bikinis. I concentrated on the road.
One guy wore no shirt, blue socks and shoes, and a fireworks sign around his waist. I yelled out in the best appropriate bad grammar I could for the situation, across three lanes of traffic: "Hey buddy, don't tell me you got no pants under that sign!"
The guy laughed - this is in full traffic, six lanes in two directions right off Carowinds Bouleavrd near the Wendy's - and made it clear to me that the fireworks sign was all he wore. The moon may have been out early in Fort Mill
Charlotte can keep its coma-inducing Panthers, boring bankers, and crummy firecrackers that don't leave the ground. Love July 4th in Fort Mill, SC, where the world comes to buy the biggest, best, loudest, fireworks on earth.