On December 31st, we took the train to a friend’s place for dinner. The day before, we went to buy a pack of fireworks to share between the two of us. They’re legal for three days leading up to New Years. We had no idea how many to buy, so we texted the host.
Q: “How many fireworks do we need?”
A: “Just get enough for you.”
That didn’t answer our question at all! We don’t know how much enjoyment one firework brings! Would three fireworks be enough to make the evening delightful? What if we needed 100 fireworks to truly enjoy ourselves?! Alissa thought sharing the Big Pack was plenty. I was pretty sure I could set them all off myself, but I relented.
As we walked through the train station on the way to the party, I started to notice that nobody else was carrying a big pack of fireworks. In fact, I didn’t see a single firework until I spotted an Asian couple with a similar combo pack. Were the Germans keeping their fireworks in their backpacks? Maybe they had them pre-ordered in bulk, and delivered to their final destination. No sense in carrying that many fireworks on the train, am I right??
When we arrived at the party, not a single other person brought a single firework. Apparently, people our age have grown kinda bored with fireworks. Apparently, people our age think it’s a bit dangerous and loud. Apparently, people our age have lost their ability to know fun when they see it. Everyone there agreed that they stopped lighting fireworks around age 13.
“Fine,” we said, “then we get 12 more years.”
If you ever get a chance to go to a city that allows normal people to shoot off fireworks wherever they want, you should go find the tallest point in the city to watch. We launched our fireworks on a hill overlooking Stuttgart, and we didn’t really even need to bring our own. It was like a war zone of color and noise. The entire panorama was filled with things blowing up, and all visible parts of the city were participating. It lasted from about 30 minutes before midnight, to 30 minutes after midnight, and as we walked back home, the streets were littered with firework casings and burned-out rockets.
It was glorious.