You know me and another fellow here at work about my age were discussing this topic one day and we figured by modern standards we should be dead already because we basically did everything that kids are protected from now.
One of those things is fireworks, we threw all the safety precautions to the wind. I remember when the spark off a punk fell in my brother's firecracker bag, it was fun watching him dance around. But it was really fun watching my yankee nephew dancing around when a spark got into his coat pocket igniting the firecrackers there in.
One of my brothers cobbled together a gun from some pipe for use with bottlerockets, I liked the ones that doubled back on him.
Hey what fun is youth without a little stupidity thrown in.
Here's the manly guide to fireworks
http://artofmanliness.com/2008/07/01/the-ultimate-guide-to-best-fireworks/