BANG!

I had occasion to go down to visit my family for the Fourth of July this year, which was most lovely.

I think it’s common in a lot of places to go to some city center or park and watch a fantastical public fireworks display, but I imagine this is especially true in California since fireworks are illegal (not that that stops anyone).

We did just that. It’s one of those rare exceptions to my general distaste for large crowds when I get starry-eyed and clasp my hands together with glee, skipping and batting my eyelids while I expound on the sheer splendor of the display of community.

The streets get blocked off, and people pour in from all directions.

They play cheesy music, which fortunately we could not hear from our vantage.

I tried to take some photos with the fancy shmancy “fireworks” setting, but I never could quite time them right, and consequently, the best I have to offer is:

Which I think is pretty cool. But ya, I know. Not fabulous.

I think the best part was this mom, dad, and young-ish kid behind us. They were chattering away in what sounded like it might be Russian. They would chat and then fall silent, then chat, and then silence. And after one bout of particularly contemplative and wowed silence, the kid suddenly pipes up very urgently with something that I can’t understand but is clearly a question. And mom says, heavily accented, “fye-er wairks.” Another moment of silence as the kid rolls this around in her mind. “Fye. Er. WAIRKS?” she asks. “Fye-er wairks.” And then she broke it down and asked something about “FYE-ER?” and, after some explanation from her mom, “WAIRKS!?” and some more explanation. It was priceless.

And the thing is, since we couldn’t hear the crappy music, you don’t really have a cue for the finale (what with the musical swelling and all). So the big fireworks go off in nicely timed succession, and then every so often a multitude of the itty bitty ones go off down below

And you’re like, is THAT the finale? Is it ending now? Ya…that must be the finale….it seems finale-ish.
…

Oh.

…

I guess not. Still going…

And that happens a small handful of times, and you’re wondering if there will even BE a finale or if they’ll just sort of go until they’re done because, at this point, the sky is pretty smoky and you’re figuring with all the budget cuts and all the cities that have canceled the fireworks displays, how many more can they HAVE? Right? And my mind is wandering…like I wonder if, in countries that are at war (on their land, not in some faraway place), fireworks are a no-no. Because even if it’s a well-known holiday, if you’re used to hearing bombs go off, do you really want to hear explosion after explosion? I wonder…

So I’m wondering.

And BAM BAM BAM KABLOOM BAM BOOM BIM BAME BOME BOOM BOOOOOOOOOOOM.

‘Splosions galore. Nothing artistic about it. Just lots of gunpowder.

Turns out, THAT was the finale.