aaah, the hiss, boom and bang of fireworks. The rumbles started around noon today. I don't understand why anyone would put fireworks off in broad daylight, but then again, I don't understand why the morons in my neighborhood like to go out every now and then and just shoot guns into the air. A teenaged girl was killed on New Year's Eve because someone shot into the air and it came down and into her bedroom window. But, I digress. When I was a little kid, fireworks were a big deal. The 4th of July was a big deal. My dad's birthday is the 5th of July so every year, we'd celebrate his birthday on the 4th. We'd start the day getting ready. We'd clean off the picnic table in our yard, cover it with one of those red and white checkered "plastic" table-cloths and then secure it with bricks on each corner. Then, dad would fire up the grill while my brother and I played in the wading pool or did other summer time things. One of our favorites was pretending to "weld" the chain link fence separating our yard from our grandma's with our sparklers. Once the grill was good and hot, we'd have all of the traditional cookout type foods-- hot dogs, hamburgers, watermelon, potato salad and popsicles. My brother and I would take pieces of our buns and put them on the ground and watch little armies of ants carry away the crumbs. As the afternoon would wind down, we would fill a cooler with pop (yeah, I'm from where we say pop) and ice and head to this place called Ohiopyle where there are dams and pools of fresh water. We'd splash in the water and play on the rocks. My brother and I would make fishing poles out of sticks and pretend to be fishing. After we were thoroughly saturated, we would then climb back into the car and head back home to "wait" for the night-time fireworks. As the sun began to set, we would climb back into the car and drive to the nearby county fairgrounds and stake out a "good" parking space. As darkness fell, the sky would light up with all kinds of fireworks and loud bangs would fill the air. My brother hated the loud fireworks so he'd always cover his ears. My favorite was the big puffy ones that filled up the entire sky. My mom was partial to the sparkly ones that looked like shooting stars. We would lie on the hood of the car and watch the fireworks, joining in with the crowd with the collective oohs and aahs. Then, we'd go home and chase "lightning bugs" around the yard until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer and mom made us go to bed. I miss those days. Now, if I want to see a fireworks production, I have to head downtown around noon, stake out a 3 ft section of pavement or grass, guard it in the blazing sun all day while observing other fellow residents getting drunk and acting like morons. Then, once the 20 minutes of fireworks is over, I get to sit in my car in traffic for at least an hour just to get to the highway. I'm not too fond of crowds and I hate sitting in traffic. So-- I stayed in and watched it on TV. :) It's not the same "interactive" experience as being downtown, but I didn't have to wait in line to use the bathroom and the snacks were free. Have a safe holiday weekend everyone! (Oh--- what's up with the "emblem" thingy over there --------> I know it's the soup nazi but he kinda looks like a demonic Anthony Shaloub from MONK.)