Every summer, as the Fourth of July approaches, Americans everywhere gear up for celebrations filled with light and thunder. For Joel Wegener, a dad of ten from Loveland, Ohio, those warm months presented a unique opportunity to earn some extra cash beyond his career in education. Instead of a typical summer job, Joel decided to dive headfirst into the vibrant, often unpredictable, world of fireworks sales, setting up a roadside tent business that would light up the lives of many for fifteen exciting years.
From a small tent on Highway 61, his family’s enterprise, aptly named “Pyromaniac Paradise” by his daughter, welcomed a colorful parade of characters. Joel quickly learned that a fireworks stand draws a special kind of customer, often leading to unforgettable, sometimes explosive, encounters. Get ready to hear the thrilling tales of a summer entrepreneur, from unexpected smoldering surprises to fiery competition, all while celebrating the spirit of community and ingenuity that makes America shine.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
Speaker 1: This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. And all so long, was celebrating July Fourth. And what’s a July Fourth celebration without fireworks? Up next, a story from Joel Wegener from Loveland, Ohio, which is just outside of Cincinnati. Joel and his bride have ten children. And, working in the education field, Joel had to find ways in the summer to make some extra cash. Here’s Joel to tell us about one of the more explosive business ideas he has.
00:00:53
Speaker 2: So, we ran the fireworks business for about fifteen years. It was a tent business, and it was along Highway 61 between Saint Louis and Hannibal, a busy highway there, and it was this relatively small tent and we leased the the area and then we we brought in a tent every year and put fireworks in it. The people that frequent a fireworks stand are just a little bit different, and not in a bad way. In fact, there was one part of me that just kind of related really well with them, and so it was always a fun time just to go and hang out with pyromaniacs. And my daughter, my oldest daughter, actually named our business Pyromaniac Paradise, and so that’s what we called the business. But, yeah, we met some very interesting people. Fortunately, many of the people that buy fireworks, and many of the events around the Fourth of July also involve alcohol, and that is never a good combination of fireworks and alcohol, but that was often the case. And I remember one evening, we were getting close to the end of the day and a guy rolled up in his pickup truck and had obviously been drinking, and in the back of his truck he told us that there was a fireworks that didn’t work, and he was very upset that the fireworks was not working. And so we looked in the back of his pickup truck and the big 500-gram cake of fireworks had a smoldering fire inside of it and it had not been discharged, and he had—there were some ropes that you were supposed to use to carry the product, and he thought that was what you had lit. So he had been trying to light these two ropes along the side, and so it was smoldering as he had in the back of his truck. So, we quickly assessed the situation. Knew we needed to get his truck and the firework away from the fireworks tent, and so we were able to do that, and we probably, looking back, the wise thing would have been to try to get some water and put it all out, but in our pyromaniac tendencies, we decided just to go ahead and discharge it and see what happened. And so, we had quite the fireworks right there at a safe distance from the tent. Another event that happened: We had a fireworks tent, and about a mile from us, someone, a competitor, came in and had put in a tent. And that always—I always got so nervous if I had competitors around me, and so I was nervous that he was going to steal all my business and all that. But, you know, be that as it may. But I did notice every night when I left, I drove past there to go to my parents’ house to sleep, and we always either packed up all of our fireworks or we had someone stay there all night to guard it. So I noticed that it seemed that they dropped the tents and left, and I wasn’t there to see them packing up. But I never saw them packing up. All I saw was the tents were dropped. There wasn’t a camper. There was, and anybody around it. And I found that very unusual. So about a week into the fireworks season, someone called me and said, “Did you hear on the news that a fireworks tent went up and smoked north of Troy?” Troy was the town we were in. I knew I had unloaded all of mine, and you know, so it wouldn’t have been mine, but I was curious, and so we went and looked, and, lo and behold, they had left all their fireworks in this tent, unguarded, night after night. Somebody figured that out, and so they put a trail of gasoline under the flap of the tent and trailed it out of ways and lit it, and the whole fireworks tent went up and smoked. You know, they made the mistake of sticking around to watch it too long. Not the smartest pyromania around. And so it was going off. A neighbor woke up and saw these guys running across his yard. There was dew on the ground, and so the police were able to track their tracks back into the woods and find them. But anyway, it was an exciting time, not the way that I really wanted to get rid of a competition, but definitely eliminated that competition for that year. But, yeah, a lot of stories, a lot of interesting people that we met, but we always had fun. Always excitement happening at the fireworks stand.
00:06:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it’s so true. Fireworks and alcohol: not a good combination. And I’ve seen it myself. And a great job is always by Robbie on the production, the storytelling, and the editing. And thanks to Joel Wegener for sharing his summer job stories. By the way, if you’ve got a good summer job story or first job story, share them with us. We continue with our Fourth of July special here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the great American stories we tell and love America like we do, we’re asking you to become a part of the Our American Stories family. If you agree that America is a good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and seventy-six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to OurAmericanStories.com now and go to the Donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming. That’s OurAmericanStories.com.
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