Tags
family, fireworks, incense, insect repellent, Life, Memories, punk, vacation, weeping willow
One of my favorite childhood memories is of sitting outside on a warm summer evening at my grandmother’s house, listening to the adults talk among themselves, while the intoxicating scent of “punk” sticks hung in the air. The thin smoky sticks did a terrific job of keeping away the mosquitoes and biting flies that hovered around the large weeping willow in the yard. They burned so slowly that I remember, when I was a bit older, being able to hold the end of one in my teeth, copying the adults.
I hadn’t seen any in a long time, when we found some at the firework mega store I posted about around the 4th. Literally not “your grandmother’s punk”, they were at least three times the size of the spindly ones I remembered.
We bought a package, along with our fireworks, and it turns out that the two are meant to go hand in hand. They’re intended to light the fuses of fireworks, from a safe distance and without an open flame. Made of bamboo coated with sawdust, punk is also close relative (or the grandfather of?) of incense. I guess that makes my grandmother way cooler than the rest of us. Who knew?
At the beach this past week, I broke out my chunky punk and enjoyed a “fatty” (and bug-free evening) on the deck of the condo. The only thing missing was the weeping willow from my childhood……… and maybe a Bob Marley poster?
squirrel circus 
I’ve never seen or heard of these things. So where do you get them (other than at mega fireworks stores that they don’t allow us to have in Mass)? And so you smoke them? I wonder how they work against those deer flies that we’re infested with right about now.
You don’t smoke them, “they” smoke — they look like sparklers, only brown. People either hold them or stick them into a flour pot of sand or something on a table. I just found the “normal” small size here..http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/store/jump/productDetail/Summer_Essentials/Punk_Sticks/H8013?searchid=7SSEPRNT&feedid=pronto&jt=1&js=100&jsid=20930&jcp=Pronto&utm_source=Pronto.com&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Pronto.com&gdftrk=gdfV21961_a_7c336_a_7c1204_a_7cH8013_d_96552