Local Fireworks Vendors Expect Busy Weekend

For a couple of weeks every summer, two school teachers—Mark and Joanne Zeidler—make the Eastpoint Parking lot in Dundalk their temporary home for selling noise and colored flames. They set up a tent and long picnic tables and stock them with sparklers, firecracker noisemakers and ground-based "fountains" for Fourth of July celebrations. 

Their tent's canopy flaps in the wind on a recent afternoon, crackling loudly against the air—a muted preview of the noisy products they sell for Paramount Promotions, an Arlington, Va.-based retailer of fireworks.

The made-in-China merchandise goes by names like "Pyro Spectacular," "Gem Shooter," and "Delirium."

Backyard fireworks are illegal in Maryland, said Zeidler, 48. So, technically, nothing he sells actually explodes. The canisters of ground-based “fountains,” however, come with fuses and the illusion of genuine fireworks—they just don’t shoot very high into the air.

“They crackle and colors go up into the air, maybe seven or eight feet, and they bang and make loud whistles,” Zeidler said. “But everything must be out by the time it hits the ground. The canister is still intact afterwards.”

Zeidler, an I.T. instructor at a Baltimore City public school, and his wife have worked for Paramount Promotions for the last nine years at the same location. About 30 to 40 people have been stopping by on weekdays to buy their fireworks. Zeidler expects that number to triple this weekend.

Not everyone is satisfied with the Maryland and Baltimore County-approved offerings.

Dave Jurkins, an Ohio resident visiting family in the area, stopped by Wednesday, but left disappointed and empty-handed.

“I’m looking for the real stuff,” Jurkins said. “I’ll pick some up in Ohio on my way back home.”

Zeidler is used to such reactions.

“About 50 percent ask for something illegal,” he said, adding that some Maryland residents have been known to drive to nearby Pennsylvania to buy stronger fireworks.

Zeidler said most local fireworks stands will remain open through July 5. He calls it a perfect three-week summer job for a teacher.

“I used to cut grass for about 15 families, older people mostly,” Zeidler said. “But it gets awfully hot in the summer. With this, I can read when it’s slow. I work for three weeks and still get a nice break before the school years starts again. This is easy.”

The fireworks stand is open from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., and to 10 or 11 p.m. this weekend.

On Wednesday, Arnie Arneson, a licensed HVAC contractor from Dundalk and a father of five, stopped by on a pre-weekend scouting trip.

“You want to see what the prices are before you come back with kids over the weekend,” Arneson said. “That way you know what you’re looking at and what you’re looking at spending.”

At another nearby stand in the Dundalk Plaza on Merritt Boulevard, another school teacher, Jenni Mowery, 36, said she expects a busy weekend as well. She's been managing her fireworks stand, owned by the Manassas, Va.-based Tri-State Fireworks, for the past three years.

“Particularly with the Fourth of July on Monday, this weekend is going to be busy,” Mowery said. “A lot of people are having family get-togethers this weekend. I think Saturday we will actually be busier than on the Fourth.’’

She said that customers spend anywhere from $15 to $300 on fireworks.

A mother of two young children, Mowery said she expects to spend about $75 herself.

“I’m not blowing my whole paycheck,” she said, smiling.