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Steve Sleightholm's Venezuela Memoirs

Fireworks

Remember "triki-trakis"? These were composed of a material which resembled a gob of greenish snot. They could be purchased in sheets of paper for a "locha" and they were glued to the paper -- about ½ inch in diameter. You could activate them by rubbing them vigorously across your jeans or any rough surface and then throw them and they would sputter and crackle with sparks and smoke.
Well, we had a tap dancing class in Tia Juana (you know where I am going) and I did not tap dance because it was for sissies. The class used to dance on the stage at the Staff School. I used to watch and when the mood stuck me I would peal off half dozen of the triki-trakis and toss them out on the stage and as the "wimps" danced their routines they could hit the triki-trakis with their steel taps and then the dance would pickup in tempo which did not coincide with the music.

We would also buy Chinese fireworks which came in small packs wrapped in rice paper. Sometimes we could get a miniature of a regular 2-inch fire cracker and these just popped and since they were very dangerous we would light them and toss them at each other. As we got older, we were able to buy a very powerful firecracker similar to a military M80. These were nothing to be careless with as they could do major injury to a person.

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