I have made it back to the land of the living. After working five grueling days at the fireworks store over the 4th of July weekend/holiday (Friday-Tuesday from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.), I NEVER want to see another pierced/tattooed/wife-beater-shirt-wearing/chain-smoking/mullet-wearing/toothless-with-a-booze stench/three-weeks-of-grime-under-the-fingernails hillbilly again. EVER! I never thought I'd see so many in one place.

Here's the thing I don't understand. Fireworks are expensive. It's not uncommon for ONE 500 gram repeater to cost anywhere from $60-$150. And, this is for something that, once the fuse it lit, lasts for a few minutes tops. These people come into the store with like ten dirty, shoeless kids and spend $2,000 on fireworks. How does that work? Where are priorities? YOUR KIDS NEED SHOES! AND A BATH! HOW ABOUT SOME CLEAN CLOTHES THAT FIT!

Now obviously, not everyone who comes into the store looks like this. I saw people I know from church come through, some friends from the karate studio, and other various people I've met since I've lived here in Youngstown. It was kind of fun to run into people you haven't seen in a long time. But these were the kinds of people that would spend a couple of hundred dollars, not a couple of thousand.

I have never seen so many tattoos - on both men and women. I'm not talking tasteful little tattoos that are discreetly hidden, I'm talking tattoos that are plastered over large chests that are hanging down somewhere around a similarly tattooed waist. Gross. Really.

At one point, I was at a register and in my line three people in a row came through and spent over $2,000 in cash. CASH! All in 10s and 20s. Do you know what a large stack of bills that is? Do you know how nerve-racking that is to count? Where do these seemingly below the poverty line people get that kind of cash? And, having that kind of cash, what would make a person spend it all on fireworks? I don't know -– it was interesting to say the least.

Thanks to all of you out there who secured my job for another year. Here's to getting that resume updated and dodging this 4th of July bullet next year!