HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA

What a great day..a day to remember where we came from and what price was paid so we can enjoy our life today.
When I was a kid, during WWII, fireworks were not available, so we improvised. Dad would go to the river and cut big cat tails (a swamp or river plant that have a long thing brown thing growing on top of a sturdy stem among green leaves) Then Ed, next door, would soak them in kerosene for a week and on the evening of the fourth we would stick them in the ground in some pattern and we would light them and watch them burn. That was our fireworks.
After the war, when you could buy fireworks again, we would get lady fingers for me, black cats for the bigger guys and also cherry bombs. Hated those things, you would throw them on the street, and they would pop. Now you had to throw them hard and since I wasn't too big and strong, I would have to ghrow them pretty close to me to get them to bang. Problem with that is they would throw off sparks that would hurt when they hit you. Never got the hang of those things. We also had rockets and roman candles..those were Mother's favorites. Needless to say, lots of people had serious injuries on the fourth and many had minor injuries. It was good when they outlawed many of those things.
My kids loved bottle rockets and I understood why people who had shake shingles didn't like them, because we had shakes and always had to really watch it to be sure they didn't land on the roof. Finally those were outlawed and everyone was sad but the firemen!
Today most people just watch the big sponsored fireworks...but some peoples children have not grown up and love fountains and smoke bombs and black cats. Ah, well...none of that for us this year and I don't think Ghost will be sad. I will enjoy the fireworks at the stadium from my front porch and the beautiful fireworks and music from Boston and Washington DC.
Happy Birthday, America...long may you live in freedom.