Follow the link to a news video of a fireworks display that occurred on Interstate 94 near Kalamazoo, Michigan during a 120 vehicle pileup on the snowy road. A semi truck carrying 40,000 pounds of fireworks exploded and burned setting off an amazing display.
This accident brought to mind a fourth of July celebration I attended back in the sixties. My brother invited us to watch the fireworks display in his town of Sauk Village, Illinois. We got to the park early after an afternoon barbecue. Did you ever experience having to wait for it to get dark in July when you begin waiting at 8:00 p.m.? My three kids, and his five kids went bonkers running wild and enjoying themselves while we parents went wild trying to curb their enthusiasm.
The sky darkened enough to begin the show somewhere around nine-thirty. The Sauk Village Fire Department was in charge of the show. We sat on the hood of our car in the front row of the parking lot within a hundred feet of where the men were setting things off. The display began normally with random Roman Candles and a few very loud Dago bombs booming over head, the Sound of the bombs was deafening. Then, I spotted a fireman holding a lit flare down at his side while walking past a large cardboard box containing the Roman candles, bombs, shooting stars, and showers. As he passed the box someone accidentally bumped him, and he dropped the live flare into the box. Within thirty seconds it was World War One and Two all over again. Things whizzed past us into the parking lot, some into the dry field opposite, and others into the standing crowd. We ran to the back of the car and cowered while keeping an eye on the display. God was with us that night because not a single person got hurt in that raucous five minutes of rockets whizzing by at eye level, and Roman candles exploding on the ground sending showers of colored fire everywhere. By far, it was the best fireworks show, but also the shortest, I have ever seen.
Filed under: Biography, family, Memories | Tagged: Fireworks, Kalamazoo, Snowy Road |
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