Ghosts of July 4th Past

I used to say that 4^th of July is my favorite holiday because we “get drunk and blow shit up!”

I’m 30 now. Not sure that could still apply.

Oxford has always been my favorite place to see the fireworks. Probably because it is an all weekend event with a carnival and softball tournaments and their fireworks show includes ground displays and music; it also lasts nearly a half an hour. Right at 10 p.m. they turn off the lights on the softball diamond, start playing the National Anthem, and when it gets to the line “and the rockets’ red glare” they shoot off red rockets, then a ground sign that says welcome. The red rockets scare me every time, even though I know they are coming. They also light up an American flag to the tune of “Born in the USA” then a sign that says good night prior to the finale. Of course, anyone will argue that their hometown or favorite fireworks show is the best, but I say Oxford is.

I always hated when the 4^th fell on a Sunday or the rain date for the fireworks ended up landing on a Sunday night because we would always race to get there after Sunday evening church service and me being the anxiety-laden child I was, always worried that we would miss them or be too late to obtain a good spot to see. But we always made it in plenty of time. I even remember being able to go to the Dells show with Michele and Beth one Sunday 4^th, and Bart and Alison and the kids to the Rapids one year. We were kind of spoiled because Oxford always has theirs on the Saturday closest to the 4^th, so many times it was possible to see more than one fireworks display; Oxford on Saturday and Dells or Rapids or wherever else on the actual 4^th.

I remember one year filming the Dells show with my gigantic, clunky VHS-C camcorder from the roof of my friend’s downtown apartment. I still have that honking thing.

The following year I went with some of my friends to Moon Rock to watch the fireworks. We had to walk around the park about six blocks and go at it from the other side because the Police Explorers guarding the park would not let us walk through the ball diamond where they were setting up the fireworks. Once we got to Moon Rock one of the guys found it funny to light bottle rockets and launch them at people in boats on the river below. That was during my rebel phase, but that night ended on a sad note when one of us received a phone call bearing bad news. R.I.P. Josh.

Later that night we all went back to a friend’s house because my friend wanted to “pay back” his neighbor. I mean those guys were real jerks, and that is putting it nicely. Almost immediately after lighting a few small fireworks of our own in the parking lot, this guy was over getting in everyone’s face, yelling that we woke him up when he was sitting outside just a few minutes prior, threatening to run us over with his car, etc. I “just happened to be” filming our backyard show and this entire scene… and the police confiscated my camcorder for evidence so they could watch the tape and decide who was going to be charged! I got it back like a week later, and the neighbor was cited for disorderly conduct.

We also got in trouble later that year, on my 20^th birthday. Two friends and I were down at Moon Rock lighting bottle rockets and firecrackers into the river and people freaked out thinking the booms were gunshots. That was kind of embarrassing because all the officers who arrived knew I was not old enough to drink… including one I went to high school with and all my friends had a crush on… ok I did too… they made us carry all our remaining beer back to the PD and had us dump it out in the gutter in front of the PD. That was the first and only time I ever received an underage drinking citation… along with one for trespassing and another for illegal fireworks…

Then I spent a few years in La Crosse and again had the luxury of enjoying two fireworks shows. Onalaska would hold their “Salute to the 4^th” celebration usually on the Sunday evening closest to the 4^th and everyone else had theirs on the 4^th. I remember seeing the Bangor show with my brother’s family after spending the day cooking out at a friend’s house nearby. But usually the place to be is Riverside Park in downtown La Crosse on the 4^th, where the fireworks are shot off over the Mississippi River from Pettibone Park across the water. That is more than a crowd and a half to deal with. Another year up there I had to work 2^nd shift on the 4^th so I barely got to see any fireworks, but my roommate and I made up for it by shooting off our own from the beach later that night.

It was after Onalaska’s Salute to the 4^th in 2009 that Zach and I started dating. The following year I was back home for the summer and had not heard from him in a while. I was on my way to Oxford fireworks with a co-worker when my phone rang. The caller ID showed a La Crosse number that I did not recognize. I was actually in the middle of telling my co-worker the story of how we met, when I answered the phone. It was Zach, calling me from a pay phone because his cell phone was broken!

In 2012 Zach and I went to our first Madison Mallards baseball game. We did not realize until we got there that Rhythm and Booms was also that night… in the same park! I remember always begging to go to that as a kid but we never got the chance to, and now we ended up there without even planning on it! So after the Mallards game we followed the crowd to the other side of the park and enjoyed a great show. We had Army paratroopers land on the ground directly in front of us, they shot live howitzers across the bay, the fireworks were pretty close set to music, and afterwards we jammed out with a small, but fun, crowd to a reggae band.

Last year on the 4^th we went to Aunt Rusty and Uncle Ed’s on Lake Kegonsa and I got to go tubing for the first time, which is now something I can cross off my bucket list. It was a little scary but a heck of a blast. Then we lit pooping dog snake fireworks on the deck.

This year Zach and I enjoyed our local fireworks in Baraboo on Friday the 4^th, then Saturday we went to Costa Ricky’s for a few before heading to Oxford. We did that last year also… that may become our new tradition. Although I did promise Zach that one of these years we would go check out Castle Rock fireworks, but those are almost always the same night as Oxford’s. However, if we could spend the day on a boat and see them from the river, then maybe I would not be as opposed.