“How did I become so addicted to fireworks? The basic motives were love and pride. As the liberals might say, I did it for the children. Growing up near Atlanta, I was no more into cherry-bomb hooliganism than any other normal red-blooded American boy. My older brother Kirby was more of the fireworks buff in the family. He always had a supply of roman candles and rockets every Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve, and I usually just watched. Then, in 1997, I got a job in Washington and came north with my wife, our 8-year-old daughter and our twin sons. The boys were then 5 and learning to read, and as we headed rolled northward through Tennessee, the little geniuses quickly deciphered the word ‘fireworks’ beckoning from billboards alongside I-81.” (07/03/08)