Chinatown, Max and me.

Heard a piece on Chinatowns around the country the other day. Got to thinking about my visits to Chinatown in New York when I was in the ninth grade. My old buddy Max and me decided to go into the fireworks business, buying in bulk and selling singly, so we pooled our money, about $20, and headed for the city. We picked up the subway in Jamaica and ended up at the battery. We walked to Chinatown and found a bench in Columbus park and waited. Very soon a Chinese teenage boy sat down by us and asked what we wanted. We told him and he led us through a couple of alleys to an old building. We went in, climbed worn wooden stairs and at the top found a paradise of fireworks. You name it and it was there. We bought cherry bombs and packages of 1.5 inchers (80 packs of 20 per package). Twenty dollars worth.
Back on the subway with brown paper grocery bags, to the railroad and home. We sold all we had by the piece to everyone that was interested, including some really young kids. Stupid, I know, but that was our middle name.
We made nearly $80 on the sales and went back the next weekend for more. This time we bought cherry bombs and ash cans by the gross, aerial bombs, chasers, several packages of 1.5 inchers, some 2 inchers, a few roman candles and a few rockets. We struggled with 3 grocery bags each, one with the wooden tails of rockets sticking out.
Now you have to understand: fireworks of any kind were illegal in New York. Period. Shooting them off, having them, buying or selling them. All illegal. Probably a felony, but we never found out.
So, back on the subway in front of a subway cop who looked us over and moved on. Back on the train then home. No trouble. We stashed some and sold the rest.
One more trip to our dealer and were set for the fourth of July. We set up a display on the beach near our house and blew up nearly $100 worth of fireworks in about 15 minutes. It was glorious, and our parents never once asked where we got them. And the miracle is that no one that we sold them to, or us, ever got hurt.
We moved on to bomb making after that. Another tale for another time.