The fourth of July is almost here and I find myself getting as excited as I did when I was younger about actually getting to see some fireworks this year! When I was of grade school age - my parents would always take me to some city (ex.: webster groves, kirkwood) that had a nice fireworks display. Mom would lay out a blanket - and I would watch the night sky light up and a thousand dreams would rush in. How do they make those? And how do they know what color they will be when they go off? or what shape? It made me believe anything was possible - as a naive youngster.... those fireworks were magic.
As I turned 13 - my best friend and partner in crime Julie, and I were allowed to take busses places ( I grew up in the city of St. Louis) so the year we were both 13 we pulled the classic "you tell your mom you are coming to my house, and I'll tell my mom that I am going to your house" routine, and we both hopped on a Bi-state bus headed for the VP Fair ( I still call it that.) We probably had 10 dollars each, and this was back before they made you buy stupid ticket booklets for everything! We got there in the afternoon and Independance Day had a whole new meaning for us - Wooo Hooo we were free!!!! Free from annoying parents - free to do whatever we wanted!!! We started off into the gigantic crowds of people and somehow met Rick Flair the wrestler and hung out with him most of the day. He introduced us to Long Island Teas! WE WERE 13!!! We probably told him we were 17. We did that a lot back then. We didn't get drunk though - we thought they tasted awful! So we headed off in pursuit of other adventures - saw some great music on the main stage - met a couple of boys our age right at dusk...and held hands with them and kissed a little, as the fireworks were going off. So that's what fireworks started meaning to me from that age on - ROMANCE. Still to this day if I don't have someone to hold hands with or smootch during fireworks, I get a little teary and feel empty but I still watch, amazed and delighted. One thing 13 year olds never do is plan something all the way through.... we hung out with the boys our age even after the fireworks....until the fairgrounds under the Arch were almost completely empty! They said bye...and we headed of at 11pm to go find our bus route. THE BUSSES STOPPED RUNNING AT 10:30!!! OH SHIT! Well we can't call our parents, now can we - Liars we were! But I had befriended a local radio DJ who happened to be working in the CBS building downtown - You see, I really wanted to get into radio and called him a lot (3 times a night) and he saw me as a nice eager-eyed kid, nothing more.... so I called on the REQUEST LINE - it rang about 40 times and he finally answered. I explained our dillima, and he told me he would drive us home but we'd have to wait until he was off the air at 12 midnight - but we could come up and hang out in the studio until he was done for our safety. Heh! Just in the nick of time as the people of the night ( hookers, winos, and muggers) were starting to come out from the shadows as the families and tourists were leaving downtown. Now most of you know I have an 11 year old daughter, so you can understand the hair on my arms and neck standing up as I write this story. He kindly drove us home to MY HOUSE - and as we neared my front porch, my mom was sitting outside - Julie and I ducked down and told him to take us to the end of the block.... we got out and started walking back deciding what our story was going to be as we knew our mom's had already talked, and our big lie was exposed. All these years later I don't even rememeber what we told my mom - I do remember getting in big ass trouble though! And picturing Julie and I not being able to get to sleep that night from all of the days excitement - we took a trip BY OURSELVES to scary old downtown St. Louis and survived! The world was ours to explore - because it somehow didn't seem that big and bad anymore.
2005 - and I still love fireworks! You couldn't get me anywhere near the heat and crowds of VP FAIR (fair st. louis) - I go to somewhere a bit smaller to watch fireworks... year before last I had my kiddo and her friend. Layed out a blanket for them - and layed there under the magically lit up sky still wondering how they do that.... my daughter added, "How do they know what shape it's gonna be?" I just smiled and said - I don't know.... and really I don't wanna know. I don't want the curtain pulled back - it's part of the magic NOT to know! My boyfriend wasn't anywhere to be found, as it was also his GIG we were at - so he was probably off rolling up chords or something. So laying there, I reached out blindly and found my daughters hand....and she took mine and squeezed it and said, "Happy Independance Day Mom." I couldn't imagine being in any other country in the world on July 4th. America rocks!!!
