By the way, Dave Alvin formerly of the Blasters, is playing at the Folk Center. I've got a ticket. Saw him several years ago, just after he left the Blasters. One of the best concerts I ever attended.
I spent my 4th of July at My friend Curt's hill-top home. Curt is a friend of mine, going back to before kindergarten. We've known each other for almost fifty years. Fell out of touch for awhile and have lately been re-connecting.
I used to spend my 4th's at the church where I grew up. My mother has been a member there since she was a teenager. Maybe longer.
Around here, the big fireworks display comes from atop Mt. Rube, a local landmark. Across a small valley, on another hill, sits the church, its parking lot and playground facing the Mountain. It's probably not a distance of even two miles. So the congregation gathers around and has a big potluck, culminating in the fireworks display. The fireworks are only one of the attractions-the other being the suspense of when one of the sparklers explodes too close to the ground and sets the side of the mountain ablaze. Last Monday, there were two fires-one of which spread pretty quickly before the fire department got to it.
The fire department is always on the ready, by the way. They have got it down to a science, allowing for just enough inferno to entertain without putting anyone in danger.
My friend's house sits at the top of another hill across the wider valley of Riverside. The fireworks aren't nearly as close as they are to the church. But, what you get in addition is almost an even trade-off. Sitting high atop the hill, gazing across the valley at the mountain, you can see all of the individual, illegal, fireworks displays going on in people's backyards. As time for the big display approaches, these smaller displays begin. Each sparkler jumps into the sky like a trout leaping out and diving back into a lake. When the big display gets going, the experience takes on a three-dimensional affect, with the smaller fireworks exploding a few yards in front of you, a half-mile away, a mile, and on, in all directions. From all angles, bursts of color that glow and dissipate into the dark.
Not a bad evening.
6 comments:
My poor deprived children who never had even sparklers DID have a few sparklers this year.
They were not impressed.
They might have liked to see all the illegal displays but as it was they had to only listen or see them at ground level.
I'm talking about those bombs that burst in the air. I guess thet aren't sparklers. It's been a long time since I have played with fireworks.
Yes, we saw some bombs bursting in air.The boy child says he can make some good fireworks but the parental units say no. The girl child could care less.
I think we musta put the fear of the law in them.
I could rant on this one for just days but, to keep it brief...
The nanny-staters and neurotic old biddies with neurotic little dogs that have pushed to make private fireworks illegal all over the place just make me want to hurl.
That's sometimes "hurl" as in technicolor yawn and sometimes "hurl" as in defenestration.
HH
I so agree. Personal fireworks have been illegal in Riverside for as long as I can remember. When we lived in Santa Rosa they were legal but they just outlawed them last year. Yeah, sure every year some little bone head loses a couple fingers and some fires get started but that's going to happen anyway. There will always be enough illegal fireworks around and some of them are quite dangerous. Why not offer the "Safe and Sane" stuff to the safe and sane majority? Fireworks stands were great fundraisers for the schools.
Every year we would but a bunch of Lightning Flashers and put them away until Halloween. Stick one of those babies into a jack-o-lantern and watch the show! Well, now that we're in Riverside we can't get the Lightning Flashers. Poopies.
Anyway, once you lose something like that it's just about impossible to get it back. Too bad the stupid people ruin it for the rest of us.
HH: You have proven that brevity can be the soul of rant.
However, I think that, when you put explosive stuff in the hands of most people, they become magically dumb.
Yet, perhaps if fireworks were to become legal again and dumb people started blowing themselves up again, the rest of us would learn from their examples and would handle our explosives more safely and sanely.
In spite of my tendency to favor personal freedom, I'm divided on this one.
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