The Explosive Growth Of The Fireworks Market

In the early 1970s, the market for fireworks was heavily regulated in many states. But not so much in Tennessee.

Back then, Glenda Tinnin and her husband ran a souvenir shop and restaurant alongside a highway in the state. Their business was doing pretty well, but then an even more sparkling opportunity lit up their entrepreneurial ambitions.

"My son, who was 12 at the time, started selling fireworks out on the front porch, and he was doing better business than we were," Tinnin says. So they decided their roadside business should blast off in a new direction.

Glenda and her husband began selling fireworks at their store. And they put a big hand-painted sign on their storefront: Hee Haw Fireworks, which was emblazoned in red capital letters.

Today, 49 years later, Hee Haw Fireworks has rows and rows of explosives filling their store. "We have the Death Shell,