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.
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
Post a Comment
Thanks for leaving a comment!