While many people may celebrate by having cookouts and shooting fireworks, here's how a village in New York used to celebrate in the mid 1950s...I wouldn't try this at home!
Well after the turn of the century the village of Gilbertsville, New York, was still celebrating the Fourth of July in an unusual way...More unusual were the "fireballs." A day in advance a few older girls, instructed by a very old man, would gather to make them. Candlewicking was twisted into loose balls about the size of a small grapefruit. With a long needle and string they were stitched through and through to hold the wicking together. The finished balls were left to soak overnight in pails of turpentine.
On the evening of the Fourth, as soon as it was dark, the balls were taken out and lighted with matches. They were then thrown up and down the main street of the village. Arching overhead with a blaze of two or three feet, they made an impressive display. Competition to throw them was keen, and there was a scrimmage over each ball as it fell.
Strange to say, the flaming balls did not burn the hands. Turpentine burns at a moderate temperature. The motion of snatching the ball from the ground carried the flame away from the hand. In the split second of throwing the only damage was to singe the hair on the back of the hand.
Source
Ecob, Katherine G. "Homemade Fireworks." The Folklore of American Holidays. Eds. Hennig Cohen and Tristam Potter Coffin. Detroit: Gale, 1991. 269.
No comments:
Post a Comment