Yesterday was the Fourth of July, and if there’s one thing you can expect on the Fourth of July it’s people losing their minds over fireworks.
“THERE’S FIREWORKS TONIGHT! ARE YOU GOING? WHAT AM I SAYING? OF COURSE YOU ARE! IT’S FREAKING FIREWORKS!!!”
I always smile politely as these people rhapsodize about how beautiful and life changing fireworks are, but on the inside all I can think is… I don’t get it. What is so amazing about fireworks?
I saw on news yesterday morning that people were already lined up outside the Rose Bowl at dawn to get in to see the fireworks show starting at… 9:05 p.m. That is crazy, right? Getting up that early for twenty minutes of twinkly lights set to a Lee Greenwood song?
Whoop-Dee-Freaking-Do
I don’t mean to sound like a spoil sport. Honestly, I am happy people enjoy fireworks (so long as they’re not being a-holes and shooting them off after 10 p.m. or putting kids at risk). If I could I would just ignore them, but unfortunately I can’t because – dun dun dun – Heather is a fireworks lover.
Each Independence Day we go see the fireworks, and I’m always grumpy because I’m exhausted after a long day of swimming, eating, and being in the sun. I was extra grumpy last night because all I wanted to do was doze on the couch with a Tivo’d Dateline, so in the car on the way over I decided to get to bottom of this whole fireworks thing.
ME: “Help me out here. Explain to me why you like to watch fireworks so much.”
HEATHER: “Are you seriously asking me why I like to see fireworks on the Fourth of July?”
ME: “You realize it’s the same fireworks every year, right? It’s not like they’ve invented some amazing new type of firework that they’re going to debut tonight. It’s the same show you’ve been watching since you were three years old.”
HEATHER: “You should’ve napped.”
Later, the fireworks’ show started and it was indeed the same except for one thing… Annabel. She was having the time of her life, oohing and aahing, and it was impossible not to have fun watching her.
Halfway through the show she hopped up onto my lap and yelled, “Look, Dada! Look!” I feigned enthusiasm, whooping and hollering, and she leaned into me, giggling. That was pretty awesome, and I soon found myself thinking, “These fireworks are actually pretty spectacular.”
Don’t go getting the wrong idea though… you’re still not gonna see me outside the Rose Bowl at dawn next year.
jackie says:
I feel the same! I mean I enjoy seeing them on the 4th of July.. not June the 28th at 10 PM… I also would not spend hundreds of dollars on pretty lights… thats just money burned.
Sidnie says:
Even if Annie batted her eyelashes and asked, “Pretty please, Dada? Pretty please, can we go watch fireworks at the Rose Bowl?”
TamaraL says:
Yeah…unless Annabel wants to go…
Stephanie says:
I live in Ottawa and last Canada Day we went to Parliament Hill to watch the fireworks. My extremely practical friend just kept saying, “Do you realize how much this is costing the government right now?”. I was ready to deck him. I’ve never gone to see fireworks with him again.
Mommy says:
I had a friend say that too! But my hubby told him that it was probably cheaper than putting out all the fires out that people start when they light the fireworks themselves! So there, party pooper friends.
ColleenMN says:
I think they are pretty, sure, but I don’t get my undies all in a bundle over them. We went when the kids were little because it was a BIG deal for them. Now that they are adults, we can stay indoors, avoid the mosquitoes and watch a trashy reality show (me). I can watch the plethora of videos on FB of them, or on TV even. No. Big. Deal. Heck, they have them several times on each season of the Bacherlor/Bachelorette……….Besides, it was 101 degrees here yesterday and I was NOT going to sweat it out and compete with those blood thirsty, annoying, flying insects of torture.
Kim says:
I agree with you Mike. What’s the big deal? I feel the same way about parades. Get there early for good seating, carrying all sorts of stuff. Can’t move from your spot lest you lose it, but one of y0u has to take complaining kids to the bathroom, for food, for drinks, entertain the kids, and finally the exceedingling boring parade. Fireworks aren’t as boring, but over quickly after all the work getting the spot, holding it and setting up the kids to watch, getting them food and listening to the whine about the wait.
And they’re tired because they’re up late. And I’M tired because I’M up late.
Forget it. They can see parades and fireworks when they’re old enough to go themselves.
Killjoy, that’s me.
Kim says:
*you
*exceedingly
Casey says:
I’m with you. Maybe I’m unpatriotic, but the idea of truding my three year old through crowds at 9:30 pm (an hour and a half past her bedtime!), only to get stuck in traffic for an hour trying to get out…and then get up early for work the next morning. No thank you. If the 4th was on the weekend – or my daughter was a bit older – maybe. But I’m an old lady and need my sleep if I’m going to work the next day…and my daughter can be quite the Crabby Patty too
TonyaM says:
You are hilarious, and I couldn’t agree more. With one kid not feeling fully well yesterday, I jumped at the chance to skip fireworks. Then at 9:00 mom guilt kicked in and I loaded the kids up in the mini van to go chase fireworks. My husband, a party pooper too, stayed on the couch. We ended up getting to watch the better parts of four different sets of firework shows, and the kids raved about how it was the best 4th ever. Sigh. The things we do for them! Then I returned home to two freaking out dogs (another reason I hate fireworks) who refused to go out to potty and a-hole neighbors who shot fireworks well past 1 this morning, despite the city ban we have AND the fact that it’s as hot and dry as the Sahara here. So yeah, bah humbug on the fireworks.
Shannon says:
My kids don’t care for them…..I don’t either. Back before the hubby and I had kids we got to see some International Fireworks Competition held in his hometown of Naples Florida….our little old town now…fireworks…laughable. So yeah..very glad the kids would rather set off bottle rockets and little tanks in the street!
Katie says:
I am glad someone else is a bit bah humbug about fireworks!! I rarely go and see them. Then when I do the stinky, sweaty crowds annoy me and then waiting for the crowd to thin in order to go home. sigh.
Last night at midnight as I was trying to sleep I really, really appreciated my drunk neighbors lighting fireworks right outside our apartment doorstep next to bushes. I should also mention that temps have been over 100 with no rain. Good thinking neighbors. Fireworks to me are just too dangerous because people who don’t use common sense use them.
Deb says:
As soon as I started reading I knew you’d be won over to fireworks by Annie by the end! I always thought fireworks were boring and even resented my parents dragging me to fireworks shows when I was little, but now that i have 3 boys who are just awestruck by them (and now the oldest is so interested in exactly how they work), I really look forward to the show every year. We would not miss it! Even if it is a weekday and we have to work the next day, even if it is going to get the kids in bed 3 hours past their bedtime, even if the youngest is less than a year in a half, we will be there, on the beach with our chairs and our blanket and our drinks and our snacks for 2 hours until the show starts because we all love them and can’t get enough! Also, I think the fireworks are WAY BETTER than they were when we were 3 – I mean, have you seen the one that makes the shape of a star in the sky?
Amber says:
Its fun if you’re setting them off yourself!!
Gretta says:
My husband does not get fireworks either. I love them.
Jay- The Dude of the House says:
I also have never understood the allure of fireworks and, like Heather, my wife loves them. Unlike you, I’m even less of a fan after last night when the fireworks started early and scared the bejeesus out of my 2.5 year old Little Dude. Game over, just as it was beginning.
Linn says:
I don’t think they’re worth the trouble and my husband agrees, and when our firework-loving kids become cynical teenagers in a couple of years I hope they will decide they don’t want to go, and I dislike knee-jerk patriotism and country music but when that Lee Greenwood song busts out under the sparkles I never fail to tear up. Darn me.
Jess says:
Gah! You and my husband are cut from the same cloth. Couple of party poopers! He’s the same way about every holiday. “Do we really need a Christmas tree?” “Why do we have to get pumpkins and make a big mess carving them?” “What is the point of these eggs anyways?” drives me nuts.
Katie says:
I don’t like fireworks either. I’m also not a big holiday person in general (decorating for Christmas? Yuck.). My husband calls me a holiday “humbug” but oh well. I agree with you Mike- I just don’t get it!
Denise says:
I think it makes a difference where you view the fireworks. Usually we watch from the beach, and that’s usually pretty great. But this past year we were in a crowded, paved lot…and it wasn’t as much fun. I’m glad Annie liked them.
Annalisa says:
I’m conflicted on this. I used to be a fireworks lover. Part of it was that I grew up in Europe, where they only do fireworks on holidays once a year or so, thus when it happened it was special.
I also do admit that some firework experiences are better than others. The first year my husband and I were dating, we decided to go watch the fireworks in Chicago from Navy Pier for the Fourth. Well, I had seen them before, but sitting by a dock and seeing them up close? It was pretty spectacular, and ten years later it’s still one of my fondest memories.
That said, now that I have a toddler, I’m starting to see it your way. We traipsed around through a Fair and parade yesterday, all in the name of making the Fourth special for the kid. It worked, mostly, but I doubt that it was more than a bother for her, and she’ll probably remember the part where we went to the park and she went down on the slides and rode the swings way more than that other stuff.
Then we had a cranky, tired 20 month old that needed to be in bed desperately, so by the time our fireworks started (10 PM, because it isn’t even that dark before that time where I live), she was fast asleep, and so our options were pretty much watching the fireworks from the roof of our building. Which, don’t get me wrong, is awesome. I get to look at the Sound at night, which means I get to see two or three spectacular light shows. But… it was still cold, and we brought the baby monitor with us so we could make sure kiddo didn’t get woken by the noise (she slept right through them), and we had to stop watching a movie halfway through… and I have to confess, I did look at the fireworks sort of halfheartedly. Not only that, the best part was when they were done with it and I could get back to the couch and the kitty who helpfully warmed my spot in my absence.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that my adult self is with you… but my inner child is like “Really? We don’t like this anymore? Frownface!”
robyn says:
ME TOO! I mean, yeah. Cool. Fireworks. Whatever. I’m not going to refuse to look at them, but I’m not going to go out of my way either. I’m certainly not going to stand in a line or sit in traffic for them.
I feel the same way about parades.
Amy says:
What do you mean if you don’t set them off after 10 pm? Is that the way it works there? Are you kidding? Here (in KY) people have been setting them off until 1:30 in the morning in my neighborhood for more than a week. Not even joking. My children–ages 6 and 2–have not slept soundly in quite awhile now. Yay 4th of July.
Amy says:
And I guess I should add also: Yay 1st of July, 2nd of July, and 3rd of July…
Beckie says:
I don’t get it either. I will turn down an invitation to sit and sweat (in TN) every time. I’ll turn on the Washington. DC 4th celebration, but didn’t even do that last night after I saw who was on the program. We were in a NO Fireworks restriction because of the drought. Still heard a few that went off in the neighborhood. I was tempted to call the police, but decided that if there was a fire, it would be the owner of house who shot off the fireworks.
Aimee says:
You should’ve gone to the one fireworks show (somewhere in CA I believe) that malfunctioned and 18 minutes worth of fireworks went off in less than 20 seconds. Best fireworks show ever.