For as long as Jerry Pine can remember, fireworks have been a family affair.

That’s because various members of Lawrence’s extended Pine family have manned a fireworks stand just outside the city for the past 54 years.

The tradition even predates him.

“I grew up in it. I’m 46,” said Pine, a co-owner of Pine’s Howard Garden Center & Green House, 1320 N. Third St.

“I was born in 1955, and the stand had already been going for a few years. It was a money-maker for my two brothers, Marvin and Jimmy Pine, who are co-owners of the stand. My dad, Howard, started it in 1948, just to make a little money and to do something with his two sons. I came along late.”

Howard Pine died in March at the age of 88. But the tradition he started continues to thrive each year, as the Fourth of July approaches.

His fireworks stand was originally outside his garden center. For many years, though, it has been based in a tent pitched in a parking lot at Tee Pee Junction just east of the intersection of U.S. Highway 24 and U.S. Highway 40-59.

On a typical day, three generations of the Pine family can be found working at the stand. That includes Jerry Pine.

	What’s legal and what’s notFireworks sales are illegal in Lawrence. Fireworks stands must be outside the city limits. Douglas County regulations allow the sale of fireworks through today only.People may ignite or discharge fireworks legally on private property in the city, with property owner permission, from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. today.Discharging fireworks on public roads or rights of way and in public parks is illegal. Fireworks shall not be ignited or discharged within 1,000 feet of any hospital or into, under or on a car whether moving or parked.It is the responsibility of users to clean up fireworks debris.Fireworks prohibited in Kansas include bottle rockets, fireworks mounted on a stick or wire and projected into the air when ignited. This includes trough or pipe rockets, but it excludes helicopter-type fireworks. Homemade fireworks also are prohibited.

“We’ve had customers who’ve come here to buy fireworks since they were little kids. Now they’re parents, and they bring their kids here,” he said.

While the faces behind the stand have stayed the same, trends in the popularity of certain fireworks have come and gone.

What are people buying these days?

“Fireworks that produce color a lot of the nightworks, fountains, shells that go up and burst. People are leaning toward colorful nightworks and less toward firecrackers,” Jerry Pine said.

But the stand continues to stock a wide selection of fireworks for every taste inch-and-a-half firecrackers, fountains, Roman candles, sparklers, multi-tube Chinese mortars.

The Pines sell fireworks that range in price from 10 cents for a single, small item up to $50 or $60 for big packages containing a combination of items.

“You’ll have kids who’ve saved their pennies, and then you’ll have people who come out and buy lots of fireworks (worth hundreds of dollars),” Pine said.

Meanwhile, another Fourth of July tradition in Lawrence has unfortunately fizzled out.

For the first time in 16 years, Guy and Carrie Neighbor, owners of The Yellow House, 1904 Mass., will not have a fireworks stand at Tee Pee Junction.

“One of the reasons why we’re giving it up is that our kids are all grown up. It’s so hot, and we’re not making any money out there. It’s just not worth the time,” Carrie Neighbor said.

Instead, the couple has given up their space to their distributor, Jake’s Fireworks, a Pittsburg business that will set up a stand in their place.

Safety concerns were another incentive that convinced the Neighbors to finally fold up their tent.

“Fireworks are getting too dangerous, and I don’t want to be responsible for burning someone’s house down. It seems like it gets worse every year. We just decided it was time to quit,” Carrie Neighbor said.