4th Of July Recollections
It seems most people have plans for celebrating the birth of our nation on July 4th and many of us have special memories of past holidays. Permit to reminisce about some of those memories and explore some of the happenings currently underway.
Growing up in the 50’s meant enjoying a pack of firecrackers and some sparklers. The firecrackers were nothing like the incendiary ammo one can now buy at the local tent store but were called “lady fingers”. Heck, you could accidently ignite one in your hand and there was never a scratch unlike the fireworks of today where with an explosion your hand would disappear!
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Seems there was always a supply of sparklers in the various neighborhood homes. We would stand for hours in someone’s front yard and hold our sparkler until the last glimmer of spark disappeared. I don’t think many children these days even know about sparklers.
If you wanted to view a fireworks display, the local drive-in movie theater would have a demonstration after the feature movie. And keep in mind back then there was no daylight saving time so the movies started around 7:30PM and the fireworks were over by 10:00PM.
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The Michigan Legislature has approved a relaxing of the sale of fireworks so as we now travel down the various roads in our towns we see numerous tents hawking the sale of cherry bombs, Roman candles, rockets and missiles. What ever happened to those innocent smoke snakes!
Back in the 50’s we only had black and white TV so there was no need to televise the fireworks since we wouldn’t be able to appreciate the colors. Nowadays most towns have their own fireworks display and you can watch the extravaganza on TV or on your iPhone.
This holiday season there will be parades in many towns. But the best celebration in my mind takes place every year at Greenfield Village. It offers music Americana, 19th century lawn games and the Detroit Sympathy Orchestra which will play Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture featuring historic cannons. It is truly an emotional event!
So whatever you do this Holiday Season have fun – enjoy yourself, be safe and grab some sparklers and smoke snakes.
Bill Kalmar
