Article Contributed on: 6/26/2009 9:12:01 AM
I love the 4th of July. Everything about it screams American.
Hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill. Mounding bowls of potato salad and coleslaw. Fresh corn-on-the-cob. Baked beans. Juicy red watermelon. Apple pie and chocolate cupcakes. And my favorite, the aroma of sulfur and gunpowder hanging in the air.
The 4th of July is synonymous with fireworks. It's the one time of year when blowing something up is an acceptable practice. In fact, most people applaude the act.
As a kid from Ohio in the sixties, I come from a long line of pyromaniacs. My Dad, my brother, my uncles and my cousins showed up every year for the big 4th of July picnic at our house well-armed for the main event of the evening. The fireworks show.
Unlike most families of the day, mine didn't go to the local fireworks stand just to buy sparklers and firecrackers. That stuff was for the kids. They went for the silver salutes, M-80s and cherry bombs. You know, the stuff that blew a lunar-sized crater in the backyard.
To add to that, they also made their own night fireworks. The kind that shot up hundreds of feet in the air and exploded in plumes of color. Every year, you never knew what type of explosive wonder they were going to show up with.
The picnic began in the early afternoon, but when the lightning bugs started to glow, the stage was being set for the big show.
They started with sparklers, smoke bombs and bottle rockets for the kids. When the last sparkler was extinguished in a bucket of water we all went to a safe part of the yard and out came the big guns.
One after another the men took turns blowing up the "real" fireworks as the kids and wives stood huddled on the sidelines holding their ears.
Finally, it was time for the grand finale. Typically this was a homemade bomb that rocked the glass windows of the house. On today's standards, it would be grounds for imprisonment.
After the smoke settled it was time to clean up the carnage. All the shells were retrieved and put in a bucket of water. The chunks of sod were tamped back down into the yard and one by one car's full of happy family members left to go home.
Fourth of July has many meanings to us all. It is a time to remember the great sacrifices and courage our forefathers endured to make America what it is today. It's a day to show our patriotism and wave our flag proudly. But for me, it will always be the booming of fireworks and thick clouds of smoke and sulfur. As long as I live, I will never get tired of holding my ears and looking up into the night sky.