So ... we saw fireworks all right. Forty solid minutes of fabulous, frenetic fireworks. We actually made a whole day of it. (Hot dogs for lunch [at Ted's in Tempe ... originally from Buffalo, NY] but ... alas ... no apple pie.) It was hotter than ... HOT, but once the show started it was as pleasant as can be. This particular show draws the biggest crowds in the Phoenix metropolitan area, but it was the first time we had seen them there.
However ... for forty minutes as I gazed at this spectacle, I took a mental journey over 35 years worth of Fourths. Thirty five years of rockets glaring and bombs bursting. Thirty-five years worth of ... awe.
We have seen fireworks from coast to coast. At Padre's stadium in San Diego. At a high school stadium in Perris CA (where an 18 month old Sonny Boy threw up all over the place.) At the Rose Bowl where we were also treated to a show that involved Wilson-Phillips. (I was no doubt wearing shoulder pads.) We have also seen fireworks over a lake in Gaithersburg, Maryland., we have seen them on the "mall" between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial and from a parking lot in Virginia where we viewed 3 or 4 different shows over our nation's capital.
In our home here we have seen them drenched in sweat. Always, always drenched in sweat. Never, never has it mattered. We have seen them over mall parking lots (and once on the grass across the street where the sprinklers promptly went off) and on the top of parking garages. We have seen them at "Rawhide" and "Westworld". We have seen them at the Diamondbacks game. We have seen them from Dad's high rise office building and from a patch of dirt road up the street from our house. We have seen them with babies and with teenagers and we hope to see them with the grandkids for many years to come.
And I am pretty certain that every single time ... drenched in throw-up or sweat or the awe-inspiring glow from the sky ... I had the presence of mind to think about, and be grateful for ... America.
And to be grateful to Neil for singing about it.
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3 comments:
Sweet post. We all need to remember what we are grateful for on this holiday weekend. Thanks Mary.
I have decided that July 4th is in my top two or three favorite holidays. I just love those fireworks and all that the day represents. And this year it was nice and breezy (enough to blow our picnic dinner away) so the heat wasn't as much of an issue; hooray! I bet seeing them in DC would be pretty cool. Thanks for the post!
We waited and waited and then left our spot at our Surprise city party, only to get home and while in the pool at about 10 in the evening hear the crazy fireworks that we could not see! Oh well, glad you got a good show though. XOXO
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