Like I do anything!! :o)
Then she invited me to go with her daughter and her to the other local town's fireworks, and I was not about to turn down two fireworks shows in as many days. :o)
We left our homes at about 9pm in order to get some good seats. Being so far north, it doesn't get dark here until about 10pm, so they weren't going to shoot off the fireworks any earlier than that.
We got an excellent parking spot near a park on the water, and I'm not sure how we got such good parking. By the time we left, folks were parked up that road almost a mile, and we were right across the street from the park. We set out our chairs, and began to watch the freak show going on all around us.
I mentioned earlier that fireworks are legal where I live because I live on a reservation. Well, the towns haven't made fireworks illegal within the town limits either, but there are restrictions to which fireworks you can have. You can't have the stuff you can buy on the reservations -- they're too big and pack too much of a wallop for town conditions.
Since we had gotten there so early, we had almost an hour to kill -- so we watched all the freaks set off their own fireworks. One group of pubescent boys even had a mortar set up that they were using to shoot at the various boats in the bay. One guy was pretty scary -- you know he'd been in trouble with the law because when the cops showed up just to make sure everything was going well, he knew them both by name and started chatting with them. He kept acting like he was kind of crazy, like not quite all there. He was part of the group of boys with the mortar, and they thought it was great fun to set off a little spinner in the grass right behind a bunch of folks and tell them at the last second that it was about to go off.
I was even surprised that they were allowing folks to set off fireworks because everything here is dried out. The grass was set on fire several times, but luckily it was stamped out every time.
J's daughter kept laughing at me because I wasn't used to being so close to the fireworks, and I'd jump every time one went off. Some of the sparks got really close to some of the people down there, and the smoke was very thick.
I couldn't believe the number of parents that brought their kids down there, handed them a lighter and some explosives, and said, "OK, go play." I saw a barely teenaged boy, probably 13 or so, set off one of those ones that just spin in the grass dangerously close to folks that weren't paying attention, and he was laughing like a maniac because he thought it was funny. One father had his toddler with him, and he wasn't really paying any mind to where the baby was. I would watch the toddler wander away from his father and eventually end up back at the mother, but neither of them were aware of it. And he would take the toddler very close to where the crazy boys were setting off all the fireworks so he could get a better view, I guess.
I'm amazed everyone came away with all their limbs firmly in place. I was sure something was going to explode and body parts were going to go flying. I wouldn't have minded it all if only they had been taking some care in what they were doing. But they weren't.
J was amazed at the amount of fireworks these people had purchased. She said there was probably $10,000 in fireworks down on the bay, which I can't confirm since I have NO idea how much fireworks are. But once, when the crazy guy was setting off a fountain, he said when it sort of just fizzled, "No wonder they were selling it for only a dollar!! That's ok... I have a $30 fountain for later."
I just can't fathom spending $30 on something that's going to be gone in less than a minute.
Then the professional fireworks started, and it was kind of hard to watch because I kept watching the amateurs set off their fireworks so I didn't end up with a flaming ember in my hair or something. But the professional fireworks were cool!!! And I could see other towns' celebrations from where I was sitting on the bay, and that was just too cool as well.
J said the only thing missing was when you watch it on tv, you get the music too. So I started to hum the finale of the 1812 Overture for her. It wasn't the same, though. :o)