lassie. i am currently caring for a little dog with a collar. the collar was imbedded in her emaciated body, she is full of worms, and her little paws were worn right off from living on the streets for months before i was able to catch her. she does not have a chip. when i leave her sight she literally screams for me...... if you are lucky, your dog is alive, and someone is caring for it.. how do you know that "someone thought it was a stray"? have you been to the pound? there are so many dogs and cats who are abandoned on a daily basis here, it would not be a huge leap to assume that any dog out on the streets is just another casualty. sorry you lost your dog......and i hope you do find her. if you don't i have the sweetest little old dog you ever met that needs a home.

Count me out, Good! Please leave town for a couple of weeks so we don't have to listen to your crying about fireworks for those two weeks.

I don't get to riled up about after the 4th fireworks until the little angels across the street start shooting bottle rockets at my house, pets and cars. Then I get a little testy. Of course no parents are home, and no adult on the premises. However, I did stomp across the street and asked them to be careful and not shoot at my house, dogs, and car and so far they have been ok.

sometimes all it takes is a gentle reminder to watch where you shoot fireworks. We live out of city limits and my children do like to shoot fireworks for a few weeks. They are not allowed to point them toward neighbors yards and I do not allow them if we are not home (and mine are 18 and 12)and I do make them walk the neighbors yards to pick up any strays. They also have a curfew for shooting at night. Inside city limits with houses closer together I don't think it is a good idea to shoot those that are airborn. I believe there is an ordinance about it and I don't care what anyone says about the police being busy, it is their job to enforce these ordinances. They don't and that contributes to the problem created by kids disrespectful and undisciplined, and parents not caring or paying attention. I don't think all fireworks should be banned. They are tradition, and I am sure a lot of those complaining shot them when they were younger and have fond memories of it, if they are honest enough to admit it.

I was pretty gentle, even though I didn't want to be. I had to think about how hard it must be on those boys to be left alone all day long with nothing to do. I say nothing pretty loosely as there is always something. I've thought once the fireworks die down, I may ask them if they would be interested in walking my dogs a couple of times a day for some pocket money. They are cute kids.

that is the way i handled it in my neighborhood. i even let them have a bottle rocket fight with each other using my yard as protection. however the rules were, first one that shoots at the house or animals, it's over. and they did great. maybe you should see if they want to do some other odd jobs for you around the yard, things like that. how nice of you to worry about them being bored and left alone. too bad more people don't think that way instead of griping.

Too bad more parents dont think that way. It's not up to the neighbors to take care of or entertain or keep occupied the kids. I understand working parents, I work. If the kids can help out it's great. It's best to be on good terms with your neighbors. I can't believe one admitted to letting the kids have bottle rocket fights. How dangerous is that? It is irresponsibility with fireworks that is casuing all the fuss in the first place...

4wildones, get over yourself, i said i allowed my neighbor kids to do it, no one ever hit anyone, and please don't tell me you didn't do that when you were younger, believe me the bottle rockets then were much stronger than they are now. geez

deb2007 I think it's a brilliant idea to let kids break the law and risk serious injury on your property. Maybe you can host some extreme backyard wrestling or a cock fight. I hope you gave them all a beer to cool down after the bottle rocket fight. We need more parents like you.

you know what, i am a good parent, a very good parent and a grandmother, how dare you judge me, mr. i think i am perfect america. you can tell that by your name. think pretty highly of yourself don't ya. didn't say they were my kids, and their parents were there with them, so get off my butt

After reading deb2007's comments, I am certainly glad I do not live in St Joe. It is very apparent that the hostility in the comments come from a Type A personality.
I am a licensed piro-technician (Means I can build and shoot commercial fireworks at events). I would not let anyone point anything with velocity at anybody. Of course, there will be a reactionary comment from her since it appears she is always right in her opinions.

Wow!!!!!!!

I am 45 years old, Deb and I remember having bottle rocket fights when I was a kid, as a matter of fact the whole neighborhood had them and nobody thought anything about it. Yes there were some punk burns, but no eyes put out, no holes exploded in any one and we all had a good time. Now granted, that was back in the 70's and apparently now instead of a firecracker on a stick a bottle rocket is now comparible to a land to air missel on a stick. If you've ever been involved in a bottle rocket fight, then you know that there is quite a bit of distance between the opposing teams. Also, they are pointed in the air not at the actual people. I agree it's probably not the smartest activity but I know I sure had a blast. In the 70's anyway.

ldt, i am not a type a and never said my opinions were always right, but for some person to insult me as a parent who knows nothing about me is not something i take kindly to. i would never put a child in harms way. the person you are talking about thinks he knows everything and in fact is the one that argues with anyone about their opinion. thank you rush620, i think there are a lot of people our age out there forget the fun or what we called fun back then. they must have turned into old fogies. and thank you for describing how bottle rocket fights are and how they were.

Deb, you would never put a child in harms way, but you would gladly put them in front of exploding projectiles. I fail to see the difference.

I'm 50. I remember the bottle rocket fights in the 70's at Hyde Park. The guys were always having them. We girls hated it! Me and my friends anyway. We were always afraid of getting hit by one. They weren't only shooting them in the air and distance didn't seem to be an issue either! Thank goodness my grandchildren don't even ask have bottle rocket fights with each other or the neighbors! And my kids don't invite it.

I'm sure 9 out of 10 emergency room doctors would be opposed to bottle rocket fights. The tenth doctor just likes to be contrary.

mr america - you are right, i missed my chance to charge admission and even rate the little bugers on how close they came, their style, charge for beverages. good idea for next year. your opinion is of no consequence. how many er docs have you spoken with.

The kids in my neighborhood used to have roman candle fights around July 4. Those things could melt the skin right off ya.

*sigh* ... those were the days. : )

yeh they were. where kids could be kids. we watched daffy duck get his beak blown off, wiley coyote get anvils dropped on him, play cowboys and indians, army. now that is a big no no. i don't think any of us turned out that bad.

You are correct that my opinion may be of no consequence, but your actions could have held grave consequences. You may have had a stellar parental record up to that point, but you got a bad mark for that decision.

Common sense tells me ER doctors would be against it. do you think they enjoy seeing children with burn injuries from fireworks. I bet they wonder where the responsible adults were.

Common sense doesn't seem all that common these days.

especially with you, who make assumptions you shouldn't.

"Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped."

Elbert Hubbard

and this applies to you?

Mr - please show me where anyone has been killed by A bottlerocket. I just googled "death by bottlerocket" and pretty much came up empty. Please rest assured that I realize if you are holding one in your hand, or if one hits you and explodes at the same time, you will get a burn that usually heals in a couple of days but other than that, I've found no evidence or creedance that would lead me to believe that one could die or be maimed for life from a bottlerocket. We are talking about a bottlerocket right? A blackcat firecracker on a stick? Now the roman candles are another story, I always chickened out of those fights but they were fun to watch.

Oh, and one more thing, the 1 emergency room Dr. that you stated who would just be being contrary is probably the one who can correctly diagnose a case of accute appendecitis while the other 9 would prescribe Maalox and send you home.

My point was accidents and injuries do happen with firworks. I also believe it's a bad idea to shoot them at one another. What is so hard to understand?

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimates that 8500 persons in the United States are treated in emergency departments each year for fireworks-related injuries (1). Of all fireworks-related injuries, 70%--75% occur during a 30-day period that surrounds the July 4th holiday (June 23--July 23) (2). Seven of every 100 persons injured by fireworks are hospitalized, approximately 40% of those injured are children aged <14 years, and males are injured three times more often than females (1). The injury rate is highest among boys aged 10--14 years (3). Most commonly, injuries from fireworks affect the hands (34%), face (12%), and eyes (17%) (4). Injuries are more frequent and more severe among persons who are active participants than among bystanders (3).

The estimated annual cost of fireworks-related injuries is $100 million (4). In 1997, the U.S. National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) estimated that fireworks were responsible for direct property damage of $22.7 million (5).

rush620- There is evidence that a person can be maimed for life by a bottle rocket - Blindness of one eye is a life time result. The bottle rocket doesn't even have to hit the eye directly.

How about a bottle rocket landing on a roof, starts a fire and heaven forbid that person or persons not making it out in time?

without calling any particular comment out, i personally was never allowed to handle any type of fireworks (even sparklers) as a child. at six years old i stopped whining to my parents about it when my best friend's brother lost his eye in a fireworks accident. i think that it is completely irresponsible to allow anyone under 18 to use fireworks without Sober Adult Supervision, and then only at a location where the danger to other's property is minimal. my neighbor's children (6, and 5 years ) spent most of the week shooting bottle rockets at my house. i found over fifty of those red launching sticks in my side yard when i mowed today. that is simply NOT responsible, and i am outraged.

and no one disagrees that they shouldn't be shooting them at the house. that is why they were told not to shoot them at the house. if i had an experience such as your heritage i may feel the same, kind of like our differences on capital punishment. these kids were doing this when i pulled up from the store, and would have done it after i left, so i set guidlines. they picked up their mess, and no problems.

I don't think kids or even adults are intentionally shooting them at houses. Bottle rockets (hence the name) were intended to be put in a cylindrical (bottle) prior to shooting them off as to direct them upward toward the open sky, not held in your hand and thrown. Unfortunately, they don't always head in the direct the thrower is intending it to go. I witnessed this several times on the 4th this year. You're very fortunate there weren't any problems. But then what if...?

heritage, I like how you stressed SOBER adult supervision. That's a very important stipulation. : )

I too was involved in a few bottle rocket fights when i was in high school, more often not I was the only girl in attendance. While it was fun, I do admit it was dangerous. No one got hurt and we did it away from the houses in a field near the railroad tracks. At this point, I expect to be lambasted for playing on the railroad tracks, but oh well. I don't regret it. We had fun and we weren't involved in crime, drinking or doing drugs.

I don't know about you, deb, but I'm uber-impressed by Mr_America's vast knowledge of everything!

well wickedtruth, he does, just ask him. he assumes a lot, and we all know what happens when ass -umptions are made. but he did point out one thing i will charge admission next year. :))

Lassie-I understand how you feel. Several years ago, while living in the country, we had a Pekingese that had tags (before the days of chips) and a couple of young girls were out joyriding in the country. Well, for whatever reason, these girls decided to pick up my dog and take him home. We searched for him for a week before finally placing an ad in the newspaper. Sunday morning, we get a call from M'Shoogy's saying that they thought they had our dog. So, I traveled up there, and sure enough it was him. The owner explained the girls' story that they assumed he was a stray (never mind the tags), took him home and their mom made them return him. They couldn't remember where they found him so they dropped him at M'Shoogy's. Needless to say, I was stuck with the bill for housing him. I was just glad he was safe.

Jump forward to last month, my son was walking home from summer school and found an off-white Chihuahua with a name and address tag, 2 year old city reg tag. He brought the dog home because the address was about 25 blocks from our home. We called the number on the tag and the guy that answered said he wasn't missing a dog. Peculiar. So I did the only thing I knew to do, take him to the Animal Shelter. They told me they would try to trace the registration number to locate the owner. If not found and he was healthy, he would be placed for adoption. My son cried because he wanted to keep him, but I explained that someone must be missing him. So we left it to the people that know best.

I hope you find your pet.

Oh, deb! Please do let me know when you do. I'd like to be a contender. Maybe we could invite Mr_America to be a judge...after all, who better to judge than the omniscient Captain oops Mr_America! We can learn so much from him!!! I need to brush up on my bottle rocket pointing technique!

tell ya what deb, if you have kids, let's me, get all drunked up, and have a bottle rocket fight, how fast can your lil ones run.

Sadly not very fast...maybe Mr_America can come and berate them and give them all of his Googled statistics about what they're doing wrong! It should prove to be educational! (Disclaimer: for all of you that don't know, "google" has been qualified as a real word in the English language!!!)

oh wait, i am deb, shoot dang it started drinkin to early, where are my bottle rockets,

google, that's the name of my friends dog.

hey rxyrch, you are drinking too, i am deb, we can use google as a target.

Heck! I think we should all be deb for a day!

no wickedtruth says she has kids, they run faster.

i know rxy, don't know you wickedtruth, but thanks for showing that we aren't the only ones who don't take ourselves too seriously except about serious issues.

Wow...has this topic turned ugly.

i guess people shouldn't talk about others parenting skills when they know nothing about them. rush620 tried to say he remembered the same things and i did he gets attacked. wickedtruth says she will probably be attacked for saying she played by the railroad tracks. these blogs aren't for personal attacks about issues. instead of making personal statements about someone who posts their opinion, we are supposed to be making statements about their opinion, not berating them, telling them they are stupid, just merely responding. so rxy helped me have a little fun, and thanks to wickedtruth for joining in.

i meant to say aren't for personal attacks, but about issues.

I don't know if the kids were supervised during their bottle rocket battle or if it occurred inside or outside the city, in my opinion it was still a bad idea and I just wanted to let rush620 know that people young and old can be maimed or die by bottle rockets. And as far as RR tracks, I'll be the first to say I played around them, cause my grandmother lived right next to them. The tracks were in her front yard.

akm it wasn't directed at you, you didn't make any personal attacks. and this forum isn't what that is to be used for. people who make personal attacks against another person, whom they do not know is another thing, it is quite un called for. if your opinion and mind differ, so be it, but i won't attack you, if you don't attack me. there is no reason for it. attack opinions.

you people make me glad I don't live in St Joe, the online edition of this rag is much more entertaining than the hard copy

Wow, still whining about fireworks. Let it go, the 4th will be back next year.

After reading about the Drugstore Restaurant, I was reminded of a restaurant that was in Liberty for many years called "The Hardware Store". I do not recall anyone raising a stink over the name, or the fact that you could not buy a hammer there.
It sounds like someone on the pharmacy board is having a power trip.

Ertman

I agree jeffandlora... the online edition is much more entertaining :)

I just want to know, can I be Deb for the day too? Think how much fun we could have :)

On a bit more serious note-- I would much rather my kids do fireworks with MY permission than to be one of those parents who absolutely forbid their children to do fireworks, so they do them behind their parents back. If truth be known, I imagine most of the firework injuries of children from 10 - 14 are kids who are doing them WITHOUT their parents permission or supervision.... and please, don't tell me that your kids wouldn't do fireworks behind your back. I have worked with kids for 30 years-- It is usually the parents who make the biggest fuss about their kids not doing something behind their back that get bit on the hindside!!

Why are you guys coming down so hard on neighbor Deb? After all, its really up to the parents to take responsibility for their kids actions with the fireworks. Its not like Deb showed them how and what body parts to aim the bottle rockets at! Bullseye! She just set some guidlelines when it came to HER yard. Geesh lighten up on her already.

Hey Deb, my kids want to know if you live down the street from us? They CAN run very, very fast. hahaha

After reading 1/2 of the entries between "deb", "akm", "mramerica" I felt like my head was going to explode. Bickering back and fourth like children. Grow up, will you please. This is rediculous, seriously. This forum is not for throwing blows at each other. It is for opinions to be heard. Not for points to be argued. Make your point and get on with your life. PLEASE. They are just fireworks, some may be dangerous but alot of things in life are. FYI you can die on just a tablespoon of water and we are all around it everyday not just a few weeks of the year. Argue about that.

workingmiddleclass if you had read my last comment, that is what i stated. there are a few on here that, instead of commenting on something call names, belittle etc. that isn't what these are for. SuzyQ - i have some left, need target practice for next year lol

working middle....You might want to read my post again and Deb reiterated I didn't attack anyone. FYI there are many things you can die from - topic here was bottlerockets.

Okay, I've been out of the loop for a few days, but I want to get in on the drunken bottlerocket fight! I have the perfect job for Mr_America - he can be in charge of icing down the booze in the horse trough and making sure all the punks are lit!

hey rush620 got any kids or grandkids, susyQ's kids are volunteering for target practice, maybe yours would like to join in. lol

Careful...my kids are "professionals", LOL

Deb 2007 brought up a good point a couple of days ago. Why in the heck did Wyle E. Coyote keep on buying his anti-Road Runner products from ACME? They ALWAYS backfired on him. I hope he gets one heckuva store credit.

LOL

or is filing a lawsuit for medical bills and pain and suffering.