Fourth of July or any other type , for that ,matter<BR><BR>Not the shooting off in your back yard type but the big ole municipality type that go on for 40 minutes or more. <BR><BR>thanks for taking the timeShare your opinion if you want but I am just wondering how involved or excited you tend to get about them.The need to ban them , spend that money on something betterI don't care for them , I don't goWill only go if someone is bringing foodtake'em or leave'em , indifferentlike them won't pay to see them thoughlike them them a lot , very enjoyableI trave far and wide to see as many as possible

My sister was born on the 4th of July, and died in 2000. I usually go to a big fireworks display in her memory, because she really enjoyed them.

flashguy

My dad used to drag us to fireworks displays. He enjoyed them but I never could figure the purpose. I was always bored out of my mind.

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
My sister was born on the 4th of July, and died in 2000. I usually go to a big fireworks display in her memory, because she really enjoyed them.

flashguy

Now, there is a good reason to go! Sorry for your loss, embrace the memories.

We go every year. ‘Merica!

I enjoy them a lot but never go. I hate crowds and heat.

When I lived in Coronado and had the boat, we made a big deal of July 4. Parade in the late morning, I played in the concert in the park, friends over for terrific dinner in time to go out on the boat for dessert, champagne, fireworks all over the bay, extremely jolly.

Now here in the hill country, we head down to the parade in the morning, with a huge crowd of bitter clingers, for color guards, prayers in public, patriotic singing, band concert, and parade with all sorts of units. They still let Boy Scouts appear in public and there were several dozen in uniforms today, carrying US flags! Nobody seemed to be ashamed of this, either.

There will be a huge fireworks program in town, but I’m too puny to attempt that.

I think July 4th was set aside as a day to celebrate and recall our struggle for independence and the sacrifices of those who made it happen.
But like most of our holidays, just another excuse to get drunk and stupid. In really hot, humid weather.

I really like them - if it's a big enough display. Cheap, small displays don't do anything for me.

It not the 4th if something isn't blowing up. And better yet, when everyone on your street is doing them too.

I enjoy going to them, but I hate crowds. So when we have ours here in town, they're in the bottoms near the river and I go up on the hill that looks over the park. Not very close, and you don't get the full effect of the sounds, but you can see the display without being packed into the park.

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Vaalic:
I enjoy them a lot but never go. I hate crowds and heat.

^^^This^^^

We can see our municipality’s show from our neighborhood, so we watch it with neighbors and a few beers. I’m indifferent about the show, but I would go for the kids to see if we couldn’t see it from the neighborhood.

I never buy any, but would reconsider if they legalized M80s and cherry bombs again.

At times I enjoy the municipal displays, but they always seem to leave me wanting more. I keep thinking, "Wow, they wasted a lot of money on that? Hmmm, OK."

Now there was one time when I was in the service back in the 80s, a bunch of friends and I went to a municipal (I think) show on the 4th in Utica, NY. For the finale they had the fireworks choreographed to Lee Greenwood's Proud To Be An American that they were blasting on huge speakers. It was pretty amazing. We all stood up at attention and saluted with lumps in our throats at the end of that one. Nothing I've seen since has even come close.

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Vaalic:
I hate crowds and heat.

Preach it brother.

I voted take it or leave it. I like 'em, have seen dozens of fireworks shows at July 4th events, ballgames, Disneyland, etc. We had supposedly a nice one locally last night(never seen it) but my wife and I really did not want to stake out out a spot earlier in the day, find parking, deal with crowds, and then the painful ride home thru traffic. We stayed home.

I voted take em or leave em. When I was younger it was fun. The older I get I don't enjoy the crowds.

quote:

I never buy any, but would reconsider if they legalized M80s and cherry bombs again.

Now there is some serious fireworks. My favorite was the US Army M80, simulated mortar round.

The fourth of july is my favorite holiday of the year, christmas my least favorite. I've loved the fireworks since I was a kid.

I nearly got smacked in the face with a mortar one year, many years ago. On a volunteer fire dept assigned to do the city fireworks, I was assigned to trash can duty; the charges were in cans at the end of each mortar row. One man worked the row, replacing charges and igniting, and one man stayed with a trash can, kept the lid on the can until more charges were needed (keep falling burning material out of the can). We were all in turnout gear. I saw a something glowing fall and land on several charges that were in the hand of the row operator, saw the fuze light off. I tried to yell over the noise, he saw them as they burned through in his palm and dropped them close to me. One of the flaming balls went by my helmet, bounced off the lowered visor.

Another year, after returning from Iraq, I was in Honolulu in a hotel. I hard a series of booms out side, which sounded a lot like mortars. Intellectually, I knew that wasn't happening in hawaii, but I found myself face down in the carpet anyway, and crawled out on to the open air hall and then balcony, to find fireworks on waikiki beach. I couldn't make myself get up, so watched from behind the railing on my knees, and crawled back to my room. I don't think anyone saw me, embarrassing as it might have been. I just couldn't get up.

One boy is back from the corps today, and a daughter back from college, so we're going to the fireworks at the local high school football field. They're pretty, we enjoy them, but the fireworks have a more somber feel to me these days.

If the fog cooperates I can walk down the street and see few shows from around the bay.

Like 'em, and the reason behind the celebration is damn good one. But I hate the crowds so it's been a couple of decades since we've traveled for a show. Don't like the private 'displays' that neighbors do as much. Spooks the dogs like nothing else and I have to water down everything I can to keep a stray bottle rocket or some other incoming aerial from sparking up a fire.