Happy 4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July!!  Independence day has to be one of my favorite holidays because of what it signifies.  I really think many of us take for granted our freedoms and hard work and bloodshed to secure them.  So, for me today, it’s a day to remember the revolutionaries and their vision.

My favorite part of the 4th, however, happens after dark.  I love the fireworks display!  My family used to go see the fireworks every year when we were growing up.  They were okay displays, enough to satisfy my youthful curiosity with a wonderment I have never forgotten.  When I moved to Texas, in 1999, one of the first things hubby and I really did together that I recall with perfect clarity was to go to Cameron Park Suspension Bridge in downtown, Waco and see the fireworks display –I moved to Waco in late June.  Cameron park is a fantastic setting, the bridge suspended over the Bosque river.  People on their boats line the river, there are vendors with all sorts of goodies and snacks, with hundreds of people sprawled out in every direction, vying for squares of green, green grass beside at the river’s side.  The bridge is actually my favorite place in Waco and on the fourth, when it’s crawling with people, it actually sways.  We found ourselves a pretty stretch of lawn around about dusk and waited, watching the people.  A local band, playing on the other bank, they were playing “Back in the USSR” by the Beatles, which made me laugh just a little at how inappropriate the song seemed to be.  Yet there were people bobbing their heads to the tune and eating their sno cones in the dying days heat.

When it grew dark enough, and there was a subtle summer breeze, the fireworks began.  The spectacular colors reflected in the green water of the Bosque and I remember being so awed.  I was speechless and in awe, the colorful blasts of light went on for what seemed like forever, the breeze blowing the smoke from the fireworks away, leaving only the colors in the clear black sky.  The fireworks display there in Waco is spectacular.  It beat any fireworks display I had ever seen, except perhaps for the one at the Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, in Anahiem, CA.  Disney knows how to put on a show.  We went and saw the fireworks in Waco nearly every year during the five years I lived there.  There are days when I truly miss Waco.

When we moved to S’vill, I remember being disappointed that we’d no longer be able to make it out to Waco for the summer holiday.  No more ambient glow reflected in the pooling green river.  No more Beetles music, no more sno cones, no more suspension bridge.  We went to the park here in town, half-heartedly, missing Waco.  We were pleasantly surprised.  While the show here in town has no river to reflect upon, it’s the biggest fireworks display in our county and for several counties around us.  People come from all the little communities around S’vill to see the town’s fireworks show, which is actually quite good.  It’s not as quaint and disappointing as I thought it would be.  They really do a very good job!  For the last two years, however, for reasons beyond my control, we’ve not made it to the fireworks.  It only happens once a year and when we don’t make it, I always feel a little cheated.  This year, we’re going to the fireworks come hell or high water!

For me, the fireworks displays are more than just a showing of spectacular sparkling light.  They’re a reminder of revolutionaries and their struggle.  They’re a reminder to me of the story of the national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, written by Francis Scott Key after he witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland.  He was so inspired when the smoke cleared and by dawns early light he could see the American Flag flying triumphantly over the fort that he pened a poem that became an intergral part of American history.  We had won the day and Key, a lawyer and amiture poet, commemorated the battle in the words of what became our national Anthem.  “The Star-Spangled Banner” was originally named “The Defense of Fort McHenry.”  The flag that flew that morning, in the early day, over the fort has come to be known as The Star-Spangled Banner Flag and is the prize possession of the Smithsonian Institute and on display at the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C..  Some day, it’s my goal to go to Washington D.C. for the July 4th festivities and see The Star-Spangled Banner Flag in person.

To all of you, wherever you may be, Happy 4th of July.  Happy Independence Day!!