Having lunch with Earl Cassorla is an experience. Soft spoken and erudite, Earl appears to be the average respectable middle aged businessman who has sober and respectable opinions about just about everything.
That is until we get to the subject of his business– fireworks.
While Earl’s knowledge of the subject is truly remarkable the change in his demeanor is astounding. A twinkle grows in his eyes and his hands literally dance in expression.
This is a man talking with passion about his passion.
No, more than that this is the kid in the candy store.
Better yet this is a guy who owns a fireworks stand.
As the fancy of little and big boys turns to fireworks in the coming weeks many will make pilgrimage to Battle Mountain Nevada, the new Mecca for things that go boom in the night and make beautiful albeit fleeting pictures in the sky.
There inside Roller Coaster Fireworks they will meet their kindred, brothers Steven and Earl Cassorla who finally yielded to their dream eight years ago to run the greatest fireworks stand in the world.
The brothers dream was born over 40 years ago in Rochester, New York.
“Like all boys we loved fireworks,” said Earl. “And like a lot of little boys we made plans to have the greatest fireworks stand when we grew up.”
If not the greatest, Roller Coaster in Battle Mountain is still pretty good with aisle upon aisle of wonderful explosives guaranteed to satisfy the most ardent aficionado.
But the Cassorla brothers journey from 4th of July Rochester to year round Battle Mountain was neither smooth nor in a straight line. Middle class boys from upstate New York simply did not go into the fireworks business, they became lawyers and engineers.
And that is what the Cassorla brothers did. Steven went to the law and Earl is the electrical engineer. Yet even while they were fulfilling expectations in the classroom the brothers could not get fireworks out of their systems.
“When I was about 14 I went under the fence at the local baseball stadium show,” said Steven. “I wrote the name of the company putting on the show on my jacket and tried to blend in with the crew. Yeah, I was caught by the owner’s son. He took me to the old man and said “Hey dad, we got another one”. The guy looked down at me and asked me if I liked fireworks. I quickly nodded yes. Then he asked me if I wanted to dig holes and I nodded yes again. He gave me a job and that is what I did for the following four summers.”
Steven eventually got his class B fireworks license meaning he joined that elite fraternity of professionals who put on public displays around the country on July Fourths, boy scout jamborees, weddings, NYE’s, and even shooting for President Reagan’s second presidential victory party.
In addition to shows Steven and Earl began attending conventions of fireworks enthusiasts. In 1988 they produced a new premium firecracker called Roller Coaster Brand which is wholesaled around the country, yet still something was missing.
“It was Earl who came up with the idea of opening a retail store” Steven said.
And in 2001 the brothers left their ‘real jobs’ and opened a store in Battle Mountain, Nevada once described as the “Armpit of America” by the New York Times, but adored by nearly all of it’s scantly 5,000 residents who enjoy small town life.
Although the town in Nevada’s High Desert may not be everyone’s cup of tea on the outside, inside Roller Coaster is paradise. Anything anyone could want from mild to wild are on the shelves of the store in a remarkable pean to what is quickly becoming a bygone era; the back yard fireworks show.
Often it was a multi generational bonding where father son and grandson bonded regardless of politics or even social standing in that uniquely male obsession with making things go boom.
The Cassorla brothers for their part have kept this multigenerational tradition alive. Every morning the brothers 99 year old father reports to work at their Battle Mountain store.
