John Adams wrote, of Independence Day:
[Independence Day] will be the
most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it
will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary
Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts
of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade,
with Shows, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from the End
of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
Forth of July fireworks seem like they would be right up his alley.
Seeing as how fireworks are
such an important tradition, we planned, as a family, to go and see some. It
wasn't going to be something fancy, just a relatively small show in an obscure
little country town.
I worked all morning, but got
home late afternoon in time to go swimming. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, in
spite of myself. What do I mean by that? Well, let me elaborate. About half-way
through our swim, I managed to trip over an invisible rock (boulder, really) in
the river and skinned both my knees practically to the bone, and then as I
scrambled out of the water, I tripped again, landing--on my freshly wounded
knees, no less--in a patch of stinging nettles. I reached for something,
anything, to pull myself up with...and grabbed another patch of stinging
nettles. Ah me.
After the disastrous swimming
excursion, we had dinner and packed up to go see the fireworks. Mind you, the
fireworks weren't supposed to start until dusk, which in our part of the world
is roughly 10:00 pm at the moment. We got to the general viewing area not long
after seven thirty and set up camp, right across from a Dollar General. This
was fortunate, because we'd forgotten to bring any water bottles, so I sallied
forth across the road, followed by my vast hoards of siblings and purchased
soda and arizona tea and lemonade.
We waited for an eternity. Reggo, Krisbe, and Kennedy got out a board game. Hobbi and I got out our books. We waited. And waited. And waited some more.
Before the "real"
show started, there was the occasional firework sent up, probably for
experimentation, I suppose? We were all watching the skyline,
eagerly awaiting these, when suddenly, just as it was getting suitably
dark, the skyline lit right up, and a gigantic fireball rose heavenward,
burning red-gold against the horizon.
We all sat there for a heart
stopping moment, knowing this wasn't right, and wondering if in the next moment
we would see fireworks or if we would hear sirens and see the lights of
emergency vehicles begin flashing a patriotic red-white-and-blue.
Thank goodness it was the
former. It couldn't have been more than fifteen or twenty seconds after the
fireball had dissipated that the first of the fireworks were set off. It was a
rather surreal experience. It took some time for me too sit back and enjoy the
show, but gradually the shock of it wore off.
Like I said earlier, the show
wasn't a particularly grand affair, but it was lovely, nonetheless. The evening
was cool, there weren't too many mosquitoes out and about, and I was actually
able to get some pictures of the fireworks on my phone. Most were pretty
terrible, but some of them were legible enough to merit showing them off.
(Note: From my vantage point I was seeing the fireworks right above that Dollar
General with some frightfully obnoxious and bright lights in the parking lot. I
tried to avoid them as much as possible when taking pictures, but the lighting
at the bottom edges of the pictures suffer, and that's why.)
These first two look like dandelions, do they not?
