Happy Birthday America

As a child I remember my parents taking me to the Fair Grounds to watch the fireworks.  It was a grand event for all the children regardless of age.

The 4th of July celebration where I live now is different from what I experienced in Illinois all those years ago.  Now the style is to launch multiple shells in rapid succession with each new burst overwriting the previous display.  It is fast, furious, and impressive, but you don’t get a chance to fully enjoy the solitary display.

As a youth they would launch a shell, it would explode and you would enjoy it until the last ember had gone out.  Then there would be the next shell, which again you could watch, savor, enjoy, and then wait in anticipation for the next.

In those days there were not only the colorful displays high in the air, but also ground displays.

Imagine a giant billboard type frame ten feet or so above the ground that when ignited would produce dazzling displays of color and imagination.

I remember four different ones in particular.

Waterfall.  This was simply a line of constantly showering white sparks.  Though simple, it still garnered the appropriate amount of oh’s and ah’s from the crowd.

Pinwheel.  There were several different variations, but all with the same basics.

It was a giant glittering, spinning pinwheel that might be one color, or change colors from red to blue to white to green and back to red.

Some would shoot a spark across the frame and start another pinwheel going.  I remember sometimes there would be as many as five pinwheels going all at once, with each new pinwheel being started by it’s predecessor.

Ships.  I only saw this display one time when I was about six years old, but it was so dramatic and compelling that it is forever burned into my memory.

It started with the display showing only one navy vessel on the sea, (with an American flag of course),  Then a second ship came in from the right.  (I assume it had some sort of flag, but I honestly don’t remember.)

The two ships faced each other and then they began to shoot at each other.  Like two people with Roman Candles their  balls of “fire” would be hurled from one ship to the other.

This continued for a while until finally the “enemy” ship would sink, and with that sinking the crowd cheered long and hard.  America had vanquished its enemy.

American Flag.  At the end of the program two things would happen. There would appear the American Flag in all the grandeur that fireworks can elicit. 

This flag of sparkles would appear to be blowing in the wind, reminding us that we were a proud and free people.  It was dramatic and awe-inspiring.  It was beautiful.

Combined with the American Flag display was a huge aerial display with dozens of different types of fireworks going off overhead all at once.

The crowd would go wild.  There was cheering and applause until the last falling ember left the sky.

You went home exhilarated and spent at the same time.  The drive home was usually quite as each of us recounted in our minds what we had just experienced.

For me, those 4th of July’s will never be eclipsed by today’s displays because I got to enjoy and devour each shell and each static display individually.  It nourished my soul.

Happy Birthday America!!