You're Not Reading This

ivesone.blogpsot.com

So what year, when, are we all going to give up fireworks? Yeah, yeah, I hear ya, "but they're so pretty!" I hate em. They are expensive, they are loud, they pollute the air. I find it ridiculous that people will mass in thousands, wait for hours for 10 minutes of pyrotechnical display, but still I managed to get dragged along by non-enlightened family members. (Ok, by LR, who wanted to run around with her pals, sans parents, all night on the football field.) In our town, because of traffic considerations, we stink up the county one night early by having our display on the 3rd.
We had a pretty full moon on the 4th as well. LR and I drove to a really high spot in the hills and found our place to watch the fireworks display from afar because there was no way I was driving 15 miles one way to pay $5. a head, and wedge myself into the local fairgrounds to see these 10 minutes of light.

So we watched most of it, the puffs of quarter sized light on the horizon from two larger towns east of us. Whatevah! Look at the sky, 20 miles of grey thick smoke floated over the plains. Disgusting. Then traffic jams that rival Los Angeles just to get home from that event. Figure it takes about 7-8 hours to prepare for 10 minutes of fireworks display, once you include planning, packing, driving, walking, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, then 10 minutes, then about an hour or more to get out of the fairgrounds parking lots, then get home.

This is just two towns. Think about the entire country spewing all that smoke for one night a year. No wait! Think about the entire country NOT spewing all that smoke for one night a year. Now that's what I'm talking about.

ivesone.blogspot.com

Now this is California, where we care about our air, supposedly. If we really did, fireworks would become illegal forever.
Now what could we use to replace fireworks while still keeping with 4th of July picnics, comeraderie and etc? I suggest shooting wieners from air guns at each other at 10 paces. Hot dogs are disgusting anyway. Or how about just hanging out with everyone that you love, having the bbq, the sack races, the watermelon eating contests and what have you. Then when it becomes dark, just play charades or something.
I just don't like fireworks, except for maybe these really cool graffiti art paintings of fireworks by Ivesone, a street artist from Amsterdam. Please go check out his blog which is full of his bright and imaginative art.

Have a lovely day!