Bing, Bang, Boom & Splat

I didn't miss the 4th of July - I just didn't have time to post - life was just a bit busy yesterday. I trust that you all had an enjoyable day and didn't lose any fingers or toes blowing up fireworks.

Now isn't this just the epitome of an old fashioned Independence Day celebration. I wonder if anybody has frog jumping contests anymore? One of our little local towns has turtle races, but no frog jumping contests.

When I was a kid, celebrating the 4th of July was a big deal. We'd have tons of fireworks that we would work on all day long and then at night there would be many neighborhood displays. Do you remember those little cracker ball thingies that you would throw at cement and they would pop? How about snakes and zingers, and all those kid things that were so fun. And sparklers - how we would wait for twilight so Dad could light the sparklers and we could make all kinds of spectacular designs.

Today, in the state of Minnesota, it's against the law to buy or set off any kind of fireworks with the exception of what is called ground based fireworks of 75 grams or less (that's pretty small). Anything that goes up in the air is illegal. So in our little town last night, there were a lot of law breakers. There were a number of neighborhoods that spent several hours exploding beautiful things high up in the air. You could also see displays throughout the countryside where people were celebrating by blowing things up. I often wonder what it would be like to be flying in a plane and looking down on the 4th of July night.

Ole also participated in making loud noises last night. Several years ago he built a black powder cannon and loves to outdo everyone else with the big boom that he can make. He announced our arrival at Bob & Carol's house last night by blowing the cannon and rattling the neighborhood windows. Everyone was in the backyard and I was told jumped out of their skins when the cannon shot. Of course, that's just what Ole's looking for so he got his chuckles last night. Oh, and don't worry - he doesn't use cannonballs when he shoots it - he wads up kleenx and just blows shreds all over (snicker).

When I was a kid we always used to travel to my Uncle Emil's who had a dairy farm in central North Dakota. This was always the best because I got to spend several days with my favorite cousin, Jean. She was a year older than me and we were just like sisters. Celebrating the 4th of July there was always a really big deal. The celebration lasted for a couple of days. It always started with a pancake feed and lots of visiting around with the town's folk and the people who had come back to celebrate. There was a big parade in which Uncle Emil always rode his horse, all decked out in a beautiful saddle and red, white and blue ribbons. The horse was a gorgeous Palamino and was extremely well trained to do tricks. Then there was a big family picnic in the park and horseshoe tournaments. And a big rodeo in the afternoon - this was cowboy country, you know. The evening encompassed a musical play on stage out at the ball park and ended with a spectacular display of fireworks put on by the City. Somewhere around midnight our parents would pile us in the car where we would fall asleep in the backseat before they could drive us the two miles home and toss us into bed.

Cousin Jean and me

So belated happy 4th - I've got places to go and things to do.

Later, People.