Thursday, July 4, 2013

Throwback 4th of July


Hmmmm....these are getting hard to just pick one throwback to write about. I have a few great July 4th memories. Last year's was pretty good as it was Brandon's 1st 4th of July celebration. He even sat up and watched the fireworks. No screaming. No crying. Just stared in awe. I'm curious if this year's will be more of the same or if he will act differently at all. I mean, he was only 3 months old during last year's festivities.

One of my favorite 4th of July memories was a summer between 8th and 9th grade. I drove with some friends, really their parents drove, to Alabama to buy some "real" fireworks. Ya know, the kind that actually shoot off of the ground.  In Florida, only fireworks that are considered "sparklers" are allowed, but we were being law breakers (really just kids being kids with some adult supervision). It's about an hour and a half drive or so to some of the largest fireworks warehouses this side of Mobile, AL. I remember getting there and being in awe of just how many darn types of fireworks there are.

We all stocked up on bottle rockets, firecrackers, roman candles, and other illegal fanfare and drove back to to Florida to play. We all stayed together that evening, my crazy teenage friends and I, and decided it would be a great idea to have a bottle rocket war. Yes, I admit, wasn't the brightest idea but again, I was young. We all lined up on each side of the back yard and started lighting the bottle rockets and aiming them at each other. I still can't believe no one got hurt. Somehow not a single one of us got hit by a bottle rocket (we all have pretty terrible aim obviously).  

We did end up going and watching the fireworks from one of the main bridges over the water that year. It was a pretty spectacular sight to see. We just sat at the top of the of the bridge, with our legs dangling down towards the water below, and watched the rockets light up the night sky.

That was definitely one of the most fun 4th of July experiences I had as a kid.

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3 comments:

  1. I'm crossing my finger for you that fireworks go well with your son this year!! My little guys first firework experience went well (he was 8 1/2 months) but last year (1 1/2) he cried and said he wanted to be all done as soon as the first one was in the sky. We are trying again this year. We will be with family & we have been talking about them to build them up. I'm hoping it works but last night he was saying they are scary already so we shall see!!!

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  2. When I was in middle school, some of my guy friends thought that it would be fun to shoot bottle rockets at people. I was unfortunate enough to get by one and boy did it hurt! Hopefully everything goes well with your son at the fireworks this year.

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  3. What a fun 4th of July memory! It sounds like a great summertime childhood memory. Everything Erica Loves

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