How did we survive when fireworks were legal?

Fireworks have been outlawed for decades here in my town, fire hazard for homeowners. We had a lot of fun experimenting with them back in the , blowing the bark off elm trees that had Dutch elm disease, shooting pop bottle rockets straight out towards a target, putting firecrackers down red ant beds and blowing them up, using smoke bombs to scare off mosquitoes for awhile so we could play in the yard. My favorites were snakes and smoking monkeys and parachutes. The worst thing that happened was stepping on a hot wire from a sparkler (because we wouldn't wear shoes in the summer outdoors). After that we kept a bucket with water to put the wires in.