Growing up where Black Cat firecrackers were made had plenty of benefits for kids in our town. That was baby stuff to my brothers & I, as Daddy was a welder & had lots of fun stuff out in the garage to mess around with--complete with most all welding necessities, and even sheet metals. We never even bothered with the protective goggles & hoods (except for the time we watched an eclipse). He enjoyed showing us all how to weld & cut.
When my older brother & I had the top band in town, back in the late 60's, some of the bands were beginning to vie with each other by adding light shows. A couple were using a light board-a board onto which lights were afixed which could be switched off & on by plugging it in and unplugging it. The only band whose sound came close to being as popular as ours used had told everyone that they had a new "psychodellic" light show. It was an overhead projector on which they put a long clear glass baking dish with oil, & into which they dropped food coloring, then wiggled the dish around. I laughed hysterically when they put on this "light show" at a dance at my high school, & promptly told my brothers about it when I got home. When Daddy got home from work at about 2:30 in the am, he found the 3 of us in the garage working on an interesting project, & after hearing my story, decided to help us.
By the next Saturday night, when we played for a local radio station concert, the Final Battle of their annual Battle of the Bands, we were the last of 5 bands in the zoo park that night. Eyebrows went up as we pushed odd looking stuff onto the stage. We made some real nice light boards with various sizes & colors of lights operated by switches wired onto a control panel a few feet away, (anybody remember when there were wires?) which we used througout the performance. The kids were eating it up. Just before our finale, we uncovered what was in front of the the lightboards on the edge of stage on either side & in front of us. My younger brother creeped along the front of the stage at just the right moment before the last verse, & colored smoke began to billow out in front the the colorful flashing lights. By the chorus, foamy crud was bubbling out of containers & flowing off the stage onto the ground & the kids were going wild-they loved it. Then, right in front of me at center stage, a Flash Gordon-like rocket arose with sparks flying & soared up, exploding with flashes of colors in the air above us & the kids in the front of the audience, who were all, by then, standing & jumping up & down & screaming at the tops of their lungs. We had repeated the chorus & were at the end of it just as the fire dept arrived.
We heard, the next day, that the rocket (or at least some of it) which Daddy and I made out of sheet metal had landed on "Monkey Island" on the other side of the zoo. Oh, and we won the battle of the bands.



And, by the way, Stilly River Sage isn't the only personage of the female persuasion here.