Fireworks

[migracja]

Germans shoot astounding amounts of fireworks. Not even 20 thousand inhabitants, but it's still going strong half an hour after midnight. It doesn't matter that the show feels enough after 5 minutes. 5 minutes is also how long it used to take in my town of comparable size back in Poland 10 years ago. Then and there every sky fountain was an experience valuable enough to wade in the snows at night to find an observation spot in the hills just out of town. Past those five minutes, only single flashes went off any longer. Here in Saxony only after an hour.

Is this a matter of spatial or temporal separation? I don't know. Since I immigrated, I never spent New Year's in Poland. Maybe the town from my memories had changed as well, turning a show into saturation. Perhaps it hadn't. I don't know. I know that there are differences between Poland then and Germany now. Now I can afford any junk, all gadgets I could desire, without destroying my savings. Japanse knives? A new computer? A CNC mill? A musical instrument? No problem. The limiting factor is now the space in my flat. Sources told me that this is what the German middle class felt like for generations already.

Meanwhile, when I was a kid, buying anything meant scrutinizing the household budget. Of course, as time went, it became less common. Since the time communism fell, Poland has become immensely richer. But has it caught up with Germany yet? Perhaps that explains the differing amounts of fireworks.

A lot of adolescents were busy with the fireworks here. They had whole batteries of rockets, 20-30 per pack. Did they pay with their own money? How big must their allowances be? When I was 16, it was enough for 2-3 decent rockets. I can explain such a difference in purchasing power only by a general richness of society.

If I'm right, then it's no wonder people around here don't hesitate to blow more money on explosions.