Ignorantia juris non excusat Ignorance of the law is no excuse
I learned it the hard way, by personal example. But, fuck it, that's how we learn something best, when it's well etched in our memory. Just as the beatings I received were etched on me back then.
It was back in 1990, the end of the year and the beginning of 1991. I am a minor, having just finished elementary school and enrolled in high school. All my friends brag about how their parents will take them to the park to throw firecrackers and light fireworks together. There are advertisements on TV every day about restaurants that will organize fireworks at midnight on New Year's Eve. Even the city, on the central square, will mark the new year with fireworks. Only me and my friend Peter will not throw firecrackers and light fireworks.
In local newspapers, which write on one page about the number of children injured when firecrackers are fired near their fingers, face or eyes, on the next page there are advertisements and advertisements for the sale of pyrotechnics. I didn't know then, FOMO was shaking us 🙂
A very tricky moment for us naughty boys. We have enough money, we have somewhere to buy firecrackers and fireworks, but we don't know if we can, because we are not old enough? I guess they'll tell us that at the pyrotechnics store? It won't! The saleswoman behind the counter packed every firecracker, cannon shot or fireworks we asked for in a large cardboard bag. She didn't ask us how old we were and why we were buying so many pyrotechnics. We paid with our savings from pocket money, got the bill and with the box in our arms headed to the school yard, where the rest of our friends were waiting for us, to light fireworks together.
But... Near the school yard, there was also a school policeman, who was monitoring the situation, who was entering the school yard, and what he was doing there. When he stopped us and saw what we had in our bag, he called the police patrol. Unfortunately (or maybe luckily, because we avoided someone getting hurt with a large amount of explosives) that the policeman caught us while trying to bring a full box of firecrackers to the other friends, we were then deprived of making a pyrotechnic experience.
But we were not deprived of beatings when my friend and I, threatened by the police, found ourselves in front of our stunned parents, who had to pay a misdemeanor fine for their minor sons, who committed the offense of possessing a large amount of explosive devices, which as minors is strictly prohibited. Fuck you, both commercials and firecrackers, they shot my ass, as if I was sitting on lit firecrackers 🤣
In those days around the New Year holidays, we didn't touch a single firecracker, we tried to be good kids, because the beatings taught us wisdom. We also avoided places where other children throw firecrackers and fireworks, so that we would not be provoked to join in.
We learned our lessons that we must not own everything that exists in this world, even though it is advertised and sold in stores, or it is fashionable to have (because some among us have) which was worth a lot to us in the following years, from 1992 to 1994, when there were a large amount of weapons from the civil war in which YU found itself on the streets. Some of those boys who threw firecrackers with their fathers had offensive and defensive bombs, bullets and pistols in their pockets... Shooting ranges where your friends went were advertised, but I personally, until I grew up and joined the army, was no longer interested in explosives, pistols, rifles, bombs and fireworks.
And I love firecrackers and fireworks. I love the smell of gunpowder and I'm not afraid of the explosion. In later years, I only occasionally threw firecrackers (although during military training I also threw bombs...), and I never got close to fireworks rockets.
When someone sets off fireworks, I watch them from a distance, and sometimes I peek into a pyrotechnics store, but I never leave with a full bag of firecrackers and rockets, I'm more interested in what they have to offer, and when the time for New Year's fireworks comes, I go to a square and enjoy the spectacle from a distance.
From an early age, I learned that advertisements should not be given much trust and attention, but that's how powerful good marketing is, and I think that this story of mine is a good example of the topic that galenkp gave us for this weekend: Has marketing ever made you buy something you shouldn't have?
Since then, when I see an advertisement with a special offer, a low price, a limited shelf life or limited quantities, I think carefully about whether what they advertise is really necessary for me (now I'm an adult, so I'm probably allowed to have in my possession everything that is advertised - cigarettes and alcohol and weapons, maybe even some cookies with canabis), which helps me a lot to avoid impulsively buying unnecessary things.
I'm going for a walk now, to take advantage of a beautiful autumn day (without going into shops and without shopping), which I wish you too.