Despite a burn ban, big booms can be heard here on the outskirts of the Ville. Sitting outside by the pool after a not-so-refreshing dip with the pesky neighbors, (the water temperature is a product of several days peaking at over 100 degrees), we watched as those living next door had quite an impressive fireworks display. I must say I enjoyed watching the show, even though I was waiting for the crispy grass to be a bright blaze at any second.
Personally, I wouldn’t have had the nerve to light rockets toward a field that hasn’t seen rain in a good long time now — I wouldn’t want the risk. Every lit stick would make me cringe to think it might be the one that caused someone to lose a home… and can you even imagine the liability? “Ummmm… yes, judge, I knew there was a burn ban. And, I can pay for the lost income because that field was destroyed if you can please give me the next 20 years to do so.”
I remember Mom taking my brother, Scott, and I to see fireworks when we were kids at the conservation club and how the bright trails of lights looked as they passed over the water there. But what I REALLY remember has nothing to do with an expensive display of lights. Every single 4th of July my Pap-pa would shoot a gun at midnight to celebrate. Pap-pa was a go-to-bed-at-9:00 PM kind of guy. But on the 4th, he would always make a big production of getting the shotgun ready, and never once mentioned that firing a gun in the air is illegal in many areas and could subject the person doing it to criminal prosecution — or maybe back then it wasn’t against the law. Who knows… but either way, we couldn’t wait until the stroke of midnight, when we would all go outside to watch as he would fire a round off in the air.
Taken at McKain’s Market in Tampico, Indiana — I’m pretty sure everyone in the photo below is now deceased with the exception of one. My Pap-pa is the handsome old dude in the middle (with the lighter colored cap) — known to any old-timer left in the Ville as Pop.
