My favorite Fourth Of July celebrations were many years ago when spent them with the Betz Family at their unofficial back-alley block party fireworks extravaganza. Me and Richard Betz were around 7 years old and were allowed to set off firecrackers, hold sparklers, and with supervision, light bottle rockets and Roman candles setup by teenagers and grownups. The night was one long fun party with a whole passel of neighbors who dragged over lawn chairs, charcoal grills, watermelons, corn on the cob, booze, cigars, pipes and smokes, and soda. It was a blast.
As for big fireworks displays, I never really enjoyed them.
One year, I remember going to the local high school football field for a big display only to have it shut down by the cops because it was not “legal”. What a disappointment that year was.
Then, when we moved to Pittsburgh, all fireworks were illegal except for the officially sanctioned ones put on by the city. Those were a huge pyrotechnic display and celebration for the entire city. They hired a professional crew to set them off from barges near Point State Park. Tens of thousands of people would crowd into downtown, pack the shorelines, and park on the hilltops to see the fireworks. Over the years, I did all of these. At least 75% of the time, it was either raining or hazy from storms earlier that day. Add in the crowds, the smoke and the distance and we were lucky to see half the show. Then, once it was done, we’d sit in traffic for hours trying to get out of there. Bleh.
By the time I moved to Florida, I was done with fireworks. My dogs were terrified of them. I’d rather stay home. But Florida as a fireworks Mecca because you could buy fireworks legally everywhere. Plus with it’s high population of third and second world immigrants, it seemed that setting of fireworks (and shooting guns) was a favorite celebration activity. Not only for the 4th of July – for Christmas, for New Years, for Easter, for Memorial Day, for Labor Day, for the World Cup. It was insane. My neighbors would set off fireworks so powerful my windows and doors would rattle. THis would start days before the “holiday” and continue late into the night and next morning – often until 3AM or 5AM!
It made my dogs tremble all night in fear while I would seethe.
My wife, on the other hand, loved fireworks. She was awestruck by them. She would sit in the yard or by the window and stare at the sky just to catch a glimpse of the shimmering embers. She would ooh and ahh.
When I took her to watch fireworks shows, I loved watching how spellbound she was. To her, fireworks were magical.
It was wonderful take her to see fireworks, no matter how much I disliked fireworks in general.
To me, she was magical.