Let freedom ring
Yet another patriotic one. This one came from Etsy, but I don't know what shop it was.
This one is one of three that my mother got for me in one fell swoop. The others are the jellybean bow from June 3rd and the flag bow from June 14th.
Like them, this bow is a big one.
Let freedom ring, baby! I remember sharing my memories of Flag Day, but I don't remember sharing memories of the Fourth of July...at least, not here. Oh, I've got so many! Halloween is my mother's favorite holiday, and Independence Day was my dad's for reasons unknown. May have had something to do with his love for history. But anywho, about April Daddy would start setting aside a little money here and there for fireworks, and as July 4th rolled around he'd buy fireworks with that money. A few here, a few there, a whole sh!tload at Reeve's Boomland in Charleston...oh, Boomland. I liked going there, but as I grew older I began to realize that it was kinda a dangerous place. Not for the fireworks, though the store did have a minor fire one year. No, Boomland is located right off U.S. 60, with Interstates 55 and 57 a stone's throw away. Southeast Correctional Center is within view of Boomland, and some of the inmates there are max security-level. Thus one never could be sure who'd come traipsing into the store, and for girls and women it was kinda dicey. Daddy always kept my sister and me within arm's length, and my mother never strayed far either. Just the same, I always had fun going there. It was a blast (LOL, bad pun) looking at the brightly colored fireworks, and smelling that sulphureous gunpowder smell, and gawking at the geodes and the stuffed animals that were available at the gift store. It was fun.
Then of course there were always the local vendors, the ones that camp out under tents with their wares and will sell you a string of firecrackers for a buck-fifty. Inevitably one of those tents had something unique that we hadn't tried before, something that didn't fly (my mom didn't like that), didn't make erratic movements(Mama didn't like that either), and didn't scream like a banshee (I hated noise), and Daddy would get that. But usually our favorite buys were cones, fountains, and smoke bombs. We also liked sparklers, and for some reason Daddy loved bottle rockets. I hate bottle rockets because they're all noise and no show. But Daddy loved 'em, and one year he loaded a whole mess of 'em up in a bottle (y'know, like they're supposed to be), AND THE BOTTLE TIPPED OVER!!! The conversation that followed went something like this:
THE BOTTLE: <falls over>
ME (calmly): Uh-oh...
SISTER (loudly): RUUUUUUUN!!!!!!!!!
And run we all did...or as best as we could, we did. We were all a bunch of out-of-shape fatsos, okay??? I managed to dodge behind our big elm tree, right as one of the rockets nearly took my ear off. The rockets all ended up firing in the direction of the house, but by the grace of God no fires resulted and no one was hurt. But that incident killed my already small love of bottle rockets. Daddy vowed to stick to Roman candles the next year...and then for him next year never came. That was the end of our family firework shows, but they were fun while they lasted.
Love and fire flowers,
RagingMoon1987
Let freedom ring, baby! I remember sharing my memories of Flag Day, but I don't remember sharing memories of the Fourth of July...at least, not here. Oh, I've got so many! Halloween is my mother's favorite holiday, and Independence Day was my dad's for reasons unknown. May have had something to do with his love for history. But anywho, about April Daddy would start setting aside a little money here and there for fireworks, and as July 4th rolled around he'd buy fireworks with that money. A few here, a few there, a whole sh!tload at Reeve's Boomland in Charleston...oh, Boomland. I liked going there, but as I grew older I began to realize that it was kinda a dangerous place. Not for the fireworks, though the store did have a minor fire one year. No, Boomland is located right off U.S. 60, with Interstates 55 and 57 a stone's throw away. Southeast Correctional Center is within view of Boomland, and some of the inmates there are max security-level. Thus one never could be sure who'd come traipsing into the store, and for girls and women it was kinda dicey. Daddy always kept my sister and me within arm's length, and my mother never strayed far either. Just the same, I always had fun going there. It was a blast (LOL, bad pun) looking at the brightly colored fireworks, and smelling that sulphureous gunpowder smell, and gawking at the geodes and the stuffed animals that were available at the gift store. It was fun.
Then of course there were always the local vendors, the ones that camp out under tents with their wares and will sell you a string of firecrackers for a buck-fifty. Inevitably one of those tents had something unique that we hadn't tried before, something that didn't fly (my mom didn't like that), didn't make erratic movements(Mama didn't like that either), and didn't scream like a banshee (I hated noise), and Daddy would get that. But usually our favorite buys were cones, fountains, and smoke bombs. We also liked sparklers, and for some reason Daddy loved bottle rockets. I hate bottle rockets because they're all noise and no show. But Daddy loved 'em, and one year he loaded a whole mess of 'em up in a bottle (y'know, like they're supposed to be), AND THE BOTTLE TIPPED OVER!!! The conversation that followed went something like this:
THE BOTTLE: <falls over>
ME (calmly): Uh-oh...
SISTER (loudly): RUUUUUUUN!!!!!!!!!
And run we all did...or as best as we could, we did. We were all a bunch of out-of-shape fatsos, okay??? I managed to dodge behind our big elm tree, right as one of the rockets nearly took my ear off. The rockets all ended up firing in the direction of the house, but by the grace of God no fires resulted and no one was hurt. But that incident killed my already small love of bottle rockets. Daddy vowed to stick to Roman candles the next year...and then for him next year never came. That was the end of our family firework shows, but they were fun while they lasted.
Love and fire flowers,
RagingMoon1987
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