Flame resistant: Families leave quibbles behind under fireworks tents

July 01, 2009 06:25 pm

— By Joe Hadsall
jhadsall@joplinglobe.com
Picture a family working in hot weather, under a huge, open air tent, selling fireworks.
What the tent creates in shade is negated by stifled, moist air. Throw in a handful of persnickety customers, an all-day work schedule, living in cramped quarters and the normal quibbles and gripes that exist in every family, and you have a potential powder keg ready to explode with fights and arguments.
Or so you’d think.
But the families that sell fireworks together actually bond more than battle.
“Sure, we get hot, and that makes us snappy once in a while,” said Steve Clines, of Neosho. “But there’s never much to argue about. We’re all working on the same thing.”
Clines’ family works a tent for American Fireworks located at Main and Fountain Road in northern Joplin. This year, he is helped by his wife, Beth Clines, sons Jarod Clines and Brandon Shrimplin, two grandsons and a family friend.
The Neosho family lives out of two campers on site during the Independence Day holiday. This year, Jarod and the other kids get the camper with the TV and PlayStation; Steve and Beth live in the other camper, about 10 feet away.
Cindy and Rick Waugh run a similar tent on U.S. Highway 86 just south of the I-44 interchange. Owners of the American Fireworks chain, they started running more than 20 years ago, when their daughter, Tammi, was just 13.
In all that time, her family has worked well together, Cindy said.
“Working together wasn’t a challenge for us,” Cindy Waugh said. “Because we’ve been running businesses since we got married.”
The secret to working as a family? Patience, said Steve Clines.
“We have to remember that we are all hot, we’re all tired and we all stink,” Steve said. “We can’t let the tension get to us.”
Steve and Beth also find that they look out for each other more.
“There are days when he needs to stay in the cool for a while,” Beth said. “There are also days when I need a couple hours of naptime.”
Another key is knowing each other’s strengths. Beth said that she and her husband excel at different parts of the business, so they trust each other to take care of things.
Though the potential for family quibbles seems higher, the pace of work and rare moments of down time keep those at bay, Beth said. There’s not much time for other forms of entertainment, she said.
“We’re all about business while we’re here,” Beth said. “We leave the house for two weeks a year and concentrate on it.”
Cindy Waugh agrees. The big stresses related to fireworks have a lot more to do with the weather, she said.
“We don’t have time to think about other stuff,” she said. “We’re in this for each other.”
When the Waughs take on additional families to sell fireworks, her message to those families is the same: Work together. Don’t hold grudges, because you’ll be running around in circles helping customers.
“We know that if we stick together, we can do anything,” Tammi Waugh said. “That’s our philosophy.”

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