Fireworks sellers get a bang out of their jobs
Staff writers
Randy Dallke’s first memories of fireworks were as a young kid sitting on his family’s front porch in Chanute.
He had a 10-cent string of firecrackers, and he was unwinding the connecting fuses so he could light one at a time and stretch out his pleasure.
Now 74, Dallke sells them.
Strings of firecrackers are in a couple of small trays at the back of his 30-by-50-foot shed, painted with a big American flag beside US-50 at Peabody.
The rest of the cavernous space is filled with more exotic versions of explosives, with names like the Bootlegger, the Heiffer, Fat Man, Widow Maker, and El Toro.
For 22 years, selling fireworks for the Fourth of July has been a once-a-year family business, now stretching four generations.
His great-granddaughter, Alexa Dutton, 12, sometimes commands the cash register. She plans to attend the town’s fireworks display Saturday with a shrewd eye to the display in the sky.
“Being part of this business, I want to know what I have to do,” she said with a capitalistic determination.
But for Randy, Alexa, and others selling the pop and flash of July 4, the commerce also is about memories.
For many, July 4 is wrapped in a nostalgia for other times and a chance to recreate blasts of their past.
“For some people, this is like their Christmas,” Randy Dallke said. “They love to see the beautiful colors and the sounds.”
Marvin Hicks, walking out of Dallke’s shed with a box of No Mercy fireworks, agreed.
“It’s my favorite holiday,” said Hicks, who was on his way home to Wichita when he stopped by the shed. “I like to be destructive, sort of.”
His display will light up a backyard Fourth party for about 10 kids and 20 adults, he said.
Those moments may be only partly about the explosives.
Roxanne Dallke, Randy’s daughter, remembers all-day celebrations that have over the years accompanied the holiday in Peabody: a greased pig rodeo, a miniature triathlon at the park, apple dunking contests, games and cookouts and family parties.
“I’d love to see them bring that back,” she said wistfully as members of the Dallke extended family milled awaiting customers around a smoky grill filled with bratwurst.
In Hillsboro, Charlie’s Fireworks also has been a family affair for 14 years.
Behind the familiar name at Marion County Fairgrounds is owner Robert Rempel, who runs the seasonal business alongside his wife, four sons, and daughter.
During the rush leading up to Independence Day, everyone pitches in.
“Almost all — four of the five — are helping this year,. They help with sales and distribution, talking with customers,” he said, before adding with a grin, “and making it, hopefully, a pleasant place to be.”
The original owner sold the business to Rempel more than a decade ago and moved to Oklahoma, where he died last summer.
By the time Rempel took over, the shop had already built a loyal following. Changing the name on the sign never made much sense.
“A name change isn’t worth it for me,” he said. “So, we’ve kept that going. He’s the one that got me going in this.”
The decision has paid off.
Charlie’s Fireworks has become busy enough that, in some years, Rempel has been able to lock the doors before the Fourth is over because inventory has been picked through by eager customers.
Customers come in with every kind of budget. Some stop in for just a handful of fountains and sparklers, while others are planning neighborhood celebrations.
It’s not unusual for shoppers to spend between $800 and $1,500 in a single visit, Remple said. The biggest sale he can remember rang up at about $4,000.
“This was actually when I was still taking it over from Charlie,” Rempel said. “I had a lot of help from him on that. But, there’s a lot of people. You just have your different ranges.”
At the Dallke’s shed, firework “cakes” are stacked on benches made of two-by-fours.
Cakes are a packaged bundle of firework canisters. Their explosions are sequenced to create unique displays with the lighting of a single fuse. They range in size, number of shots, and amount of gunpowder.
Small $30 products are good for backyard parties; huge $500 cakes will send displays 200 feet in the air and create grand finales.
There are sizzlers, flashers, buzzers, smokers, and noisemakers.
Dallke, who served as mayor of Peabody, on the city council, as a county commissioner, and as a reserve policeman and firefighter, also put on shows in Florence.
It is a careful choreography, he said.
“My show is designed for kids to start with,” he said. “Then I want to wake up the parents and the teens. I went them intrigued, so they say, ‘whoa, wow.” Then the big finale. You can have strobes. You can have anything you want to show.”