Olympus Fireworks a Utah family-owned business for over 35 years
Nathan Watson, 10, closes his eyes as his dad, Co-Owner of Olympus Fireworks Theron Watson, swings a splitting maul to hammer in a metal post at the family owned Olympus Fireworks in Syracuse on Thursday, June 30, 2016. Ted Watson, Theron's father, watches from a safe distance.
Brady Ross, 16, helps hold up an inflatable wizard at the family owned Olympus Fireworks in Syracuse on Thursday, June 30, 2016. Co-Owner of Olympus Fireworks Theron Watson joked that Ross's father is their biggest customer.
One of the variety of fireworks at the family owned Olympus Fireworks in Syracuse on Thursday, June 30, 2016.
Family owned Olympus Fireworks in Syracuse on Thursday, June 30, 2016.
Family owned Olympus Fireworks in Syracuse on Thursday, June 30, 2016.
Family owned Olympus Fireworks in Syracuse on Thursday, June 30, 2016.
Family owned Olympus Fireworks in Syracuse on Thursday, June 30, 2016.
Family owned Olympus Fireworks in Syracuse on Thursday, June 30, 2016.
Ted Watson is all about the fireworks.
The 73-year-old Logan man has been running fireworks stands in Utah and Washington state for more than 35 years. Today, with his wife and two sons, they own and operate Olympus Fireworks, a Utah company billed as the largest independent fireworks distributor in the state.
For Watson and his wife, Leslie, fireworks have always been a family affair.
“I started selling fireworks because we couldn’t afford to come to Utah from Washington to visit our parents and family,” Ted recalls, saying the extra spending money came in handy. “When we finally moved to Utah, the kids — Theron especially — said, ‘Let’s get back into it, Dad!’ “
That would be Theron Watson, of Syracuse, the couple’s oldest son. Theron remembers as a teenager being given the very adult responsibility of running one of the family’s fireworks stands back in Port Angeles, Washington.
“Dad would literally drop me off at a stand and say, ‘I’ll bring you dinner later,’ ” Theron said. “I’d have a bedroll, and sleep right there at the stand for seven days. And I’d go home once a day to shower.”
Leslie says running the stands was both fun and educational for the whole family.
“It was good times for the kids,” she said. “And it teaches them work ethics.”
For much of the past three decades, the Watsons ran between three and six stands as a family. But then, about nine years ago, Theron and his brother, Tyson Watson, of Providence, took over the business from their parents, working hard to make it “a big deal.” Today, the company has about 40 retail fireworks tents scattered throughout Northern Utah for the Independence Day and Pioneer Day holidays. They also still have one retail fireworks tent in Washington and wholesale fireworks statewide there.
BRIANA SCROGGINS/Standard-Examiner
Co-Owner of Olympus Fireworks Theron Watson gives directions to his daughter Brooke Watson, 13, left, and her friend Hanna Walker, 13, center, while displaying merchandise at the family owned Olympus Fireworks in Syracuse on Thursday, June 30, 2016.
Matriarch Leslie says she and her husband have been trying to retire from the business for some time now.
“My husband and I are old,” she says. “We’re 73. We keep telling our kids we’re not going to do it anymore — that’s why we turned it over to them.”
Still, the couple keeps getting sucked back into the business. This year, Ted and Leslie are overseeing Olympus Fireworks’ four stands in Cache Valley. And the business is still very much a family affair.
“For example, the one helping me today started when she was 3,” Leslie says of a daughter. “She’s now 37.”
And Theron’s wife has run the company’s tent in Syracuse for many years. Their children help out with various chores around the tent; they can begin selling fireworks at age 16.
“I have a 10-year-old boy who loves to help out,” Theron said. “He slept next to the tent last night.”
The Watsons have always considered themselves a patriotic family. Since junior high, Theron has read every book he could get his hands on dealing with World War II and the sacrifices people made back then.
“Over the Fourth of July, when I see things like fighter jets flying over, I get emotional over the sacrifices people have made,” Theron said. “Something like that should move almost everybody. And fireworks are one way to express that gratitude.”
Ted, a veteran of the Vietnam War, says fireworks displays help him remember fallen comrades in arms.
“We like as many people to enjoy fireworks as we can, he says. “I especially like the shows. I had a lot of friends who didn’t come back from Vietnam, and that’s the way I remember them and their sacrifice.”
Ted is also sympathetic to those with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, brought about by war.
“I had it a little, when I got back,” he admits. “At first, I couldn’t go in the back forty alone in the dark. If I had my 1-year-old kid with me, I was OK; alone, I couldn’t do it. But that only lasted about a year — I got over it pretty quick.”
BRIANA SCROGGINS/Standard-Examiner
Family owned Olympus Fireworks in Syracuse on Thursday, June 30, 2016.
Ted does vividly remember the time, just after he got home from Vietnam, that the family had gone to their cabin at Bear Lake. At one point, Ted’s brother threw a string of firecrackers in the cabin.
“I was under the table, looking at everybody’s knees,” Ted says, laughing. “Mom was pretty mad at him for that.”
On that subject, the company does offer some aerial fireworks that are relatively quiet, according to Ted.
“They’re a lot quieter, they don’t explode with a loud boom,” he said. “They’re good for babies, dogs and guys with PTSD.”
The Watsons import their fireworks directly from China, which Theron says allows them to offer aggressive, low prices to consumers. Aerials start at $2 apiece, and can go as high as $69.
Each October, the family goes to a fireworks convention where about 20 Chinese fireworks manufacturers display their wares for distributors.
“We watch 2 1/2 to 3 hours of fireworks every night for a week,” Leslie says.
At these shows, the Watsons evaluate each firework on the basis of things like pattern, length of display, height, and quality of colors. They only buy those fireworks that genuinely impress them.
“We have a scale of 1 to 10, and we don’t order anything that isn’t an 8, 9 or 10,” Leslie said.
The Watsons’ Olympus Fireworks stands are open through July 5 and will be open again July 22-25. Their stand locations throughout Northern Utah can be found on the Olympus Fireworks Facebook page.
“We are a fireworks family,” Leslie concludes. “We didn’t intend to be a fireworks family, but we are.”
Contact Mark Saal at 801-625-4272, or msaal@standard.net. Follow him on Twitter at @Saalman. Like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SEMarkSaal.