Fireworks on the Fourth

We took it easy on the 4th of July this year.  Since it was a Sunday we didn't have any kind of a big party.  Tyler loves to light a few fireworks though, so he bought some last week to light with the kids last night.  Lighting fireworks is illegal in the city limits of Fort Worth.  In years past we have lit off a few in the street in front of our house anyway.  This year Tyler thought he should set a better example for the kids since they know what "illegal" means (thanks to Tyler's propensity to draw the attention of police officers monitoring motorists speed, but that's another story).  He called our local fire department to find out where it was legal to light them and they gave him directions to some land northwest of our house.  We drove out there at about 8:45 last night and were met with a sight we were not expecting and had never experienced before - the "Park and Pop" fireworks field.  It was a big open field rimmed with cars. In the center fifty people or more were all lighting fireworks at once - fountains that stayed on the ground, Roman candles that went shooting up, and big, bursting fireworks high up in the sky.  It was CRAZY.  The air hung heavy with gunpowder smoke, pieces of ash were falling out of the sky, and the fireworks display was insanely massive.  Frenetic. 

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I've never seen fireworks from that vantage point before - meaning I've never had a huge aerial firework explode exactly over my head and rain ash on me before.  It was something.  It truly felt like we were in a war zone.  Things were whistling through the air on your right and left and exploding all around you.  Tyler kept saying "This is crazy!  I LOVE Texas!"  It was all too much to take in really.  I was quite impressed with how well the kids did with all the noise and smoke.  

We stayed for about 30-40 minutes.  People just kept on arriving.  They would unload their cars with cooler and camping chairs and several large cardboard boxes of fireworks and make their way to the edge of the launch area.  Who knows how long this went on after we left.  By the volume of explosives these people were showing up with it could have gone on all night.  There we were with the kids in their pajamas, me in a dress, and Tyler in his white shirt and suit pants in the midst of these people.   We felt a little out of place with our measly paper bag of sparklers, smoke bombs, and tiny fountains.  We obviously were new to the scene.

I think for me it was one of those only-need-to-see-it-once kind of experiences.  I'll  take my fireworks displays in a less "interactive" setting next year, thank you very much.  Maybe we'll just park across the street from the "Park and Pop" and enjoy the madness from a distance (while listening to the requisite Neil Diamond and Lee Greenwood fireworks accompaniment on the radio, of course).