4th of July Celebrations

It's 4th of July and brought up memories of past 4th of July's. Two weeks ago I noticed all of these firework booths going up around town and this brought up memories of living in San Bernardino and dad would help work in the firework booths for the ward fundraisers. He would bring home some of the fireworks. Uncle Rodney, Auntie Joanne, Jeff, Susie, Denise, Sheldon and Leslie would come over for dinner in the back yard and Dad and Uncle Rodney would set up and set off the fireworks. We would get sparklers to hold and twirl around and around. At first I would always be afraid of getting burned but the facinastion of the sparklers won over the fear.It was so much fun. I remember these round black things that you light up and they would grow like worms. I remember the smell and how much excitement and fun we had and the disappointment when it was over. We always wanted more. After our show in the backyard we would look out over our block wall and watch the fireworks shoot up into the air from the Orange Show Fairgrounds in San Bernardino and when those were over we would run around to the front yard and watch the ones from the east side of town. We alway wanted to sit up on the roof to watch them but mom and dad said no. We would either set up chairs or sit on the driveway leaning back against the garage door.

There were some years that we would go to Uncle Ward's and Auntie Sigie's for 4th of July. I remember Auntie Sigie making all kinds of food that we would take to a park down the street.
I think one year they were in charge of games and we were trying them out before we went to the park. Most years it was ovecast. We were alway surprised when we got home to find out that we had gotten sunburned. Those sun rays went right through the clouds. We were always excited to go to the beach in the evening to watch the fireworks but some years we were disappointed because the fog had come in and you could not see the fireworks. We still had a lot of fun being able to go to the beach at night.

After meeting Neil we started going to Charlie's cabin up in Warner Valley near Lake Almador. It was so nice to be in the mountains. Feel the fresh air, hear the wind in the trees, fish, relax and even to see the parade in town.

Now that the kids are all grown up we now sit on our front porch and watch our neighbors set off their fireworks and think about the wonderful times we have had in the past.