Fireworks Now began life as Loudoun Discount Fireworks, the idea of two brothers-in-law, Drew Saikin and Mike LiCausi. With their wives, Patty and Glenda, the four started this venture way back in 1988 with just three wooden stands. Mike and Drew had built a prototype in Drew’s garage to make sure it could withstand the elements…but even still, these first stands where rickety things that rattled and rocked with each gust of wind and rain.
The inaugural season saw Loudoun Discount Fireworks open with two stands in Leesburg and one in Sterling. Mike, Drew and Glenda all had full time jobs and so a great deal of that first season’s work fell to Patty Saikin and her two young children that she dragged along with her every day to the stand in Sterling.
That first season was almost – almost – a complete disaster. A list of all of their rookie mistakes would rival War and Peace. Fortunately, those rickety stands held up to the elements, but each night when the sun set, the foursome was forced to sell their fireworks in the pitch black night. It did not go well. Drew came up with the not-so-brilliant idea of stringing together a series of flashlights.
