Now I Remember Why I Like To Go To See Fireworks

Most communities did not have a fireworks display due to crowd concerns and trying to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Not having a place to go see fireworks this year and having a young son who loves to see fireworks, we went old school and had our own show at the house.

I live real close to the Hardy Dam and everyone who has ever been around a lake community know there are lots of fireworks. This year was something else for sure.

My son and I had a box of variety fireworks and a few boxes of mortars so I knew we were in store for a couple hours of fun.

When I was a kid growing up in Michigan, you could only legally buy sparklers, snakes, smoke bombs and the occasional bottle rockets. If you wanted the good stuff you either had to know a guy or travel out of state and usually that meant you had to go as far as Tennessee.

Slowly over the years you could get good fireworks in Kentucky, then Ohio and eventually Michigan.

I got an old board out of the barn so we had a flat surface to shoot our fireworks. Found a good safe spot on the property where we wouldn't hit any trees or have any hot ashes land on the house or barn.

It has been a long time since I have purchased any fireworks since the last couple years I have been going to Grand Haven and before that there was a small town in Indiana that used to have a huge display of fireworks and I went there for many years.

I have always loved going to see the fireworks shot off by someone else and this year I finally remembered why. Remember, earlier I said I had not shot off any fireworks for years. The reason why is, I forgot how much clean up there was after shooting off fireworks.

My son and I kept things pretty clean as we were shooting off the fireworks but when we went out in to the yard the next morning, we spent about as much time cleaning up all the shrapnel from the mortars that we did lighting them and it was hot out on Sunday after the fourth.

All in all, we had a blast and yes pun intended. Hopefully next year we can see the fireworks somewhere else so we don't have to do the clean up, but if that is the only way we can celebrate our nations Independence Day, then I guess we will have some clean up to do.