NEWBURGH, N.Y.—The spark that ignited Mike Romano’s passion for fireworks was a sparkler given to him by his dad when he was five years old.
“He figured ‘I might as well break in my son right.’ He gave me a sparkler and that was it,” Romano recalled, telling how his father would shoot now-illegal fireworks he brought from the south, much to the displeasure of the authorities.
As Romano grew older and his firework ambitions got too big for his backyard, he moved to the Randall Airport near where he lived in New Hampton.
It was the mid 1990’s when he was told he couldn’t use the airport anymore because of development plans there, and coincidentally, that was around the time Romano was approached by two firemen from the Otisville Fire Department to do a fireworks show in Otisville.
Now a Mount Hope resident, his firework show around the fourth of July is how he shares his talent and generosity with the local and extended community.
“I take nothing for it because it’s a hobby for me, so that’s my way of giving back to the community,” he said when Epoch Times caught up with him before a show in Newburgh.
