Enjoy the Fourth

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Went to a fireworks display last night. I’m visiting family in Missouri, where people can buy their own fireworks. While waiting for the main display to start a family was setting off fountains and sprinklers and what not right next to their car. My aunt remarked that when their car blew up it would make a good display.

What can one say but … hillbillies.

More fireworks tonight, if it stops raining. Wish us all luck.

If you want to skip the intro in the video below, start it at about 57 seconds.

16 thoughts on “Enjoy the Fourth”

  1. I hate loud noises, so I hate the 4th – unless I go to a real fireworks display. What I hate is yahoo’s shooting off explosive shit from dusk til dawn!
    And it’s not like it’s one night only. Oh, hell no! They started in the middle of last week, and I’m sure they’ll be blowing up shit until next Monday.

    And my Mom hates the 4th too, since I think she suffers from PTSD. It reminds her of Stalingrad, and WWII. She sat there yesterday at dinner and afterwards, telling me WWII stories I’d heard a million times before. But, I love her, so I listened to them anyway! 🙂

    And I wonder if the bobo’s who shoot off bottle-rockets and other crap, ever consider that it affect not only vets, but pets!
    I remember when I was a kid, my dog would jump into bed with me, and crawl under the covers, until the explosions outside stopped.

    Hey, you kids, stop blowing up your shit near my lawn!!!
    Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

  2. I may be weird, but I love things that explode and go BOOM. I once got to hear an artillery barrage; it was awesome. May be why I have tinnitus today, however.

  3. I think if my Mom heard an artillery barrage, it would be the end of her!

  5. When I was a kid back in the 40s, fireworks were illegal for private citizens. The city put on a display at the baseball stadium. It was safe and people left their animals at home. Of course they didn’t have the big boomers they have nowadays. I always looked forward to it but now it has gotten out of hand in most places and they let idiots buy them and shoot them off at certain hours. Of course, people do not obey the law and the police say it is impossible to enforce it. My dog is terrified of the noise. He trembles, pants, heart races and I have to give him Valium to get him through. So now I do not enjoy 7/4, I dread it.

  7. Swami,
    “And the Veep Wore Wonderbread Bags On Her Feet,” sounds like a bad Frank Capra movie, or one he directed on blotter acid and cheap tequila!

  8. gulag…Appreciate the Stalingrad stories…With my mother-in-law I have to hear repeats of her Mickey Rooney story. Her father was the groundskeeper for Tommy Manville and she got to meet Mickey at Tommy’s estate back when Mickey was all the rage. I guess he was the then equivalent of a Justin Bieber in today’s babe magnet market, or whoever the young girls of today respond/swoon to.

  10. A few of our neighbors had their usual fireworks display, nothing too grand or too loud. Our older horses used to get upset at the noise, but they’ve passed on. Our middle aged dog has begun to develop a fear of thunder, so generally she goes downstairs to her fortress of solitude and we all wait the storms out together.

    I like the Fourth of July and the fireworks, but I haven’t seen any in a decade or two. What gets me is that home shooting ranges are big here. So, we hear gunshots nearly every day. It gets worse before hunting season. When we had a Blue Tick Hound, she used to bugle whenever she heard a gunshot. She moved along her path to Bodhisattvahood. I think she’ll make it in another lifetime or two. She was way ahead of the rest of the family.

    Cund, was your mother at Stalingrad? I know a lot of women took part in the battle as snipers, and were very effective against the Nazi troops. Regardless, you must be very proud of her. You said that she had quite a career in music, as I recall. I have only known one person who was at Stalingrad, and he was quite an amazing person.

  11. My Mom was only 10, then. So, no sniper, she. Nor the rest of the family, who were too busy trying to survive.

    My Mom was a Lyric Soprano. And she was well known in the Slavic community in and around NYC.
    She had two solo concerts at Carnegie Hall, and both received very favorable reviews from the NY Times.
    She was also a great Mom, and was too busy being one to really advance her career much farther than she already had.

    I am very proud of her. More for being a great Mother, than for her singing career.

  12. Drats! Hillary slipped the noose. What’s ol’ Trey to do now? Maybe he should get his head sharpened.

  13. I lived in the deep south once. I was at a gas station about this time of year, when a hoopty truck pulled up, so overloaded with roofing debris the bulging tires were almost riding on the rims. One guy went inside to pay for gas. The other went for the air hose. They looked a bit like the guys in this classic pic:

    https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ap44qHitND4/hqdefault.jpg

    I remember thinking, “Uh oh. Nothing good can come from this”. Right after I went inside to pay the blowout sounded like a shotgun blast. Then there was a lot of yelling. Hillbilly fireworks? Sometimes I miss the deep south.

  14. She sounds like a great mom, CUND, sorry for the misunderstanding. I’d choose a lyric soprano over a sniper any day! (Well, that depends on the circumstances, I guess. ) I remembered that she sang at Carnegie Hall. I can’t imagine what that must have been like. To me, that takes just as much courage as talent, and I have neither.

    I’m sure she appreciates having you around, and you have an opportunity to give her back some of the love and care she gave you.

    Bill– Sometimes I’d love the opportunity to miss the deep south. But, it’s not without “charm,” and occasionally free entertainment, as your story documents.

  15. Bill,
    It doesn’t look like those two good ol’ boys had a family tree. Just nothin’ but trunk!

  16. A friend of ours is a veterinarian, and she does a huge business in tranquilizer shots for people’s pets on the 4th. You have to book a slot in advance, though she will try to squeeze your critter in if you don’t. We have a big fireworks over the harbor on the 4th. This year the clouds were low, so the fireworks lit them up in reds and blues. It was pretty impressive. It was also pretty cold. The show starts around 11PM, because it’s better after dark, and it was down in the low 40s. As usual, there was a line running out of the Safeway Starbucks section with people buying hot chocolate for their kids. I’ll bet kids from around here have weird July 4th memories.

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