Mama Kat Thursday: Celebrating July 4th

-
Today's prompt is "Share how your family celebrates July 4th."

Back in Indiana, growing up way out in the country, 4th of July was a reasonably big event. It involved a wieners cooked over a wood fire, s'mores, watermelon and sometimes homemade ice cream. Gun-powder based fireworks are illegal in Indiana, so we always had packs of the safe, legal kind full of sparklers. One year our Dad gave us cap guns, that looked like cowboy guns and rolls of caps to go with them, so we could run around snapping those off.
They made a delightful popping sound, but the cap smell gave me headache. 
Sparklers were our favorites, though, and we'd run about in the growing dusk, writing our names in the air and weaving glittering swirls in the air.
I remember several years when we'd drive to Martinsville, which was about 30 minutes away, to attend the public fireworks at the city park. We'd load up the lawn-chairs, the kool-aide and the brownies, then find ourselves a spot with a good view of the very tall hill that's a central feature of the park.
Here, city workers would arrange displays made of wood in various designs rigged with fireworks that would be set off intermittently during the launching of over-head fireworks. For example, one looked like a boy eating a watermelon and spitting out the seeds, the seeds being red fireworks. It was cool. So, the whole hillside was covered with many such clever motion displays that would be set off one at a time, working from the bottom of the hill to the top spaced in-between a few skyward shots of fireworks until they ran out of those. Then they'd spend the last 15 minutes of the hour lighting up the sky with a spectacle that would put Disney World to shame.
It was glorious. Of course, it was also the early 70's and fireworks were cheaper, so cities could afford more extravagance back then.
Still, it was such a show it makes me view a fireworks show that's just that---fireworks shot in the sky---a bit boring.

Below is a picture I found on line looking down from the top of that hill to the park grounds below. Everyone would park their lawn chairs right about where that brown patch is.

View from top of Jimmy Nash Hill to Jimmy Nash City Park in
Martinsville, Indiana.





Comments

. said…
That is fantastic! I enjoyed it very much. And that was so cool how they made a firework look like a boy eating and spitting the seeds of a watermelon. WOW! Thanks for sharing that memory with us. :)
Jul 5, 2012, 11:18:00 PM
Brianna said…
Awww. This brings back memories of my childhood 4th of July's too. Except we never had anything nearly as cool as those motion firweworks thingy's. Very, very cool. Thanks for taking me back a few years. :)
Jul 6, 2012, 12:01:00 PM

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment!

Popular posts from this blog

Mama Kat Thursday: Two Before & After Projects

-
Image
The Mama Kat Prompt topic for today is: "Show Us a Before & After." Last fall and this spring I had two major  drainage issue locations: one in the back yard and one on the side of the garage. After hours of TLC they're greatly improved. Here's the before & after on both: First: The Back Yard Pond : This happened every time we had a heavy rain: After: Same spot as it looks now. Paradise. I took advantage of the naturally concave area by edging it with flagstones and filling the center with gravel & water loving plants. The Chocolate Elephant Ears here are gorgeous! Second, The Other Pond: This bed edges on the garage near the front of the house. After:  I edged the bed with paving blocks, raised the dirt level on the grass side, then planted grass plugs. Now that it's late summer,  it's nicely filled in! I consider rate these two projects among my most successful---though not all gardening  exp
Read more

Good Eating Monday: Old Fashioned Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding!

-
Image
Welcome to the first week of February! It's supposed to be 31 degrees tonight, so after cleaning up the front walk beds, I went around covering various things that either are blooming, about to bloom or that have sensitive leaf buds, like my hydrangea's.  I picked all the yellow daffodils and brought them inside for a cheerful vase on my counter. For Garden Pic Wednesday this week I have an excellent photo of a pine tree flower! You didn't know pine trees flower?  Well, you'll have to stop back for a look! Today's Good Eating Recipe is a family favorite my Mother used to make often for us as kids: Old Fashioned Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding! What Old Fashioned Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding Looks Like This is just your basic wholesome old fashioned bread pudding made with just eggs, bread, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, sugar & raisins! No sauces to make. Just simple bread pudding. We'd eat it hot with a little evaporated milk poured over the top.
Read more

Mama Kat Prompt Day: Childhood Memories

-
Image
It's been raining intermittently today as the tail of Isaac's outer-most eastern band passed over us today. Luckily, no thunder this a.m. so I could get to water aerobics at the Y. Thundered later a bit, but sun is out now. It's one of those liquid sunshine kind of days. I'm also pleased to report, since last night, someone has purchased one of the ties I just posted in my Zazzle store! Cool beans!   Today's Mama Kat Prompt is: What do you remember most about your childhood bedroom? That's a good question and it has a pretty funny answer. First you have to picture that my 2 younger sisters and I shared one large. That by itself is memorable. It must have been at least 20' x 20' in size and the 3 of us each had a corner of it to call our own. I slept in a double bed, while my 2 sisters slept in the bunk-bed our Dad had built. He had carpentry skills and it was a huge, sturdy thing, larger then any store-bought bunk. Here's the funny pa
Read more

The Imaginary Party Outfit for the Imaginary Party

-
Image
Mama Kat's Writing Prompt for this week is a fun one:  " Put together a holiday outfit you'd love to wear at a holiday party should a holiday party ever be on your list of things to do." This concept requires 2 things: #1)  First, imagining I have an unlimited budget and can buy whatever I want. #2) Second, also imagining I might  actually have someplace fancy to go that requires such an outfit, like, for example, an upscale Christmas party at a plush Destin hotel. Now that we have the ground rules settled, we can look at the clothing catalog photos I selected for my "ideal party outfit." Now I love a lot of things I see on those oh-too-skinny models in on-line catalog photos, but I'm not a long-waisted, hipless, bustless, skinny-minny like they are. I have more of what I prefer to call a "voluptuous hour-glass" shape. I simply look ridiculous in short-short skirts, straight shift dresses, the clingy knits, the fluffy-around the hip j
Read more

Garden Pic Wednesday: Coneflowers

-
Image
You know how people decorate bowling balls for the garden?  We inherited a free bowling bowl from a military guy who was moving away, one that was useless because it was cracked between the finger holes. Having seen in Pinterest bowling balls turned into gazing balls with silver or chrome paint, I decided that's what I wanted to so with this one. I was working on it today. It takes a couple hours of spraying, waiting, spraying, waiting, spraying & waiting to get a good look. This project will be next Wednesday's post feature. Today, though, I have Coneflowers! Relatives of the common daisy, their formal name is "Echinacea." They are a great flower for dry, sunny garden spots and bloom profusely from spring to fall. Also a great flower for bees and butterflies!  Below is one of my Coneflowers with a small iridescent  Green Sweat Bee on it: Coneflowers are perennial and will grow back from the roots year after year, bushier and bushier.
Read more