For the past fifteen years I've been an employee at Sky King Fireworks, located in South Bend, Indiana. Based in Florida, this corporation has grown to over 20 locations in Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. As a family-managed location, I'm no stranger to working with family 24/7 or handling explosive items, but there's other things that come with the territory as well.
1. You have an entire drawer or section of your closet dedicated to your uniform. For Sky King, it's fluorescent colored t-shirts.
2. You can look at a show description on the packaging and know what each term means and looks like.
3. You're skilled at knowing what firework goes in which aisle during shipments based on the abbreviation on the box.
4. You have defined arm and leg muscles from lifting boxes of said shipments and when you apply for a new job with heavy lifting as a requirement, you laugh.
5. You've made several DIY projects out of the pallets that the shipments come on.
6. You watch other firework shows and point out what each effect is and also critique it based on color and projection size.
7. You've wrangled your best friend into working with you during the summer months so you'd have someone besides family to talk to.
8. You've seen all walks of life in your area based on the customers you've helped over the years.
9. Whenever you've moved, you've used boxes from shipments past.
10. You're no stranger to working 12 (or more) hour shifts.
11. You haven't properly celebrated the Fourth of July in years because you've always been working.
