Tuesday, 07 July 2009

• fireworks

  The weekend before last was our town's summer festival. There were fireworks on Friday, and the consumers I worked with wanted to go. I haven't told anyone about it becasue I left work early and then came back in to take them, which I'm sure should have been cleared one way or the other, but to me, making them happy was more important than the rules. One of the consumers doesn't use words or sign. He gestures and has inflection in his voice (he's definately left angry voicemails) and some word-like noises. Once you know him, you can understand what he's saying most of the time (which is helped by the fact that he likes to talk about the same things over and over). Well, I thought the fireworks were down at the festival. He kept telling me to keep going every time I tried to park. I thought it was because he thought we could get closer. So I finally said "that's it" and parked. We got to the entrance of the park, and he didn't want to go in. He kept pointing farther and acted like he was hitting a baseball. I asked the other consumer if the fireworks were in the park, and he said no. That information would have been more helpful about ten minutes earlier. I knew there was a baseball field on the road where verbal consumer was telling me to go. So I got in the car and drove blindly, with them leading me to the spot where they wanted to end up. It was kind of frustrating because I'd be like, "here?" and one would say yes and the othe would say no. It turns out that the consumer was telling me that they were shooting them off at the baseball field. He thought that meant we could watch from there, so I had to explain to him that we needed to find another spot. We ended up a the newspaper building, which was a blessing becasue it had a ledge to sit on, and we had a good view. It's quite stressful driving and trying to decipher gestures and not knowing where you're going, but once the fireworks started and I could see how happy the consumers were, I relaxed. It made me happy that I could give them the pleasure of watching the fireworks.

  Last weekend, on the 4th, I met up with those consumers again. My roommate was working with them, and I was working with two girls, so we went together. This time I followed my roommate, so I wasn't so worried about where we were going. We ended up on a hill by the casino. It was a great view. There was a carnival going on there too, so we could see the lit up rides in the distance. The fireworks were probably the best I've ever remember seeing, and that is saying something for my town. I thought the'd be just one after the other, but there was a whole ground display going on as well as multiple fireworks at a time in the air. I swear I saw one explode into a gold heard and a golden streak go though it. Again, it was relaxing to sit there and watch them and see how much the consumers enjoyed it. One of the girls who does not like to leave the house told me how much she enjoyed the fireworks that night and the next day. That means that she really must have had a great time.

  We also saw multiple other fireworks displays before the main one and while we were driving home. Fireworks are illegal in Michigan, but not on the reservation, which is where we were. My dad was with my grandma because she broke her shoulder a few weeks ago and had to have surgery. I felt bad that he couldn't have seen these displays because he loves fireworks. He says his brother was scared of them so his parents hardly ever took them to watch.

  I have lots of fireworks memories. When I lived up north, we'd always go to the Macinac Bridge. You can see three different fireworks displays if you sit on the beach because there's one for the cities on either side of the bridge and then one for Macinac Island. We'd go early to get a spot and hang out on the beach until they started. Of course it was sweatshirt weather, so no swimming, but the sand is always nice to play in. And the sand is quite convienent for those who use sparklers and want to make sure they're extinguished properly. We had sparklers on Saturday, and when we were done, everyone was putting them in the grass. I remember my parents being so careful at our house and providing a bucket of sand. It was weird to do, but the grass didn't catch on fire, so I guess it was okay.

  When I was in high school, I lived in an area that had houses in a square pattern, all on roads, and a big open space behind them. It was kind of like mini parks. Some of our neighbors would go to Indiana and buy fireworks and bring them back for a two-day celebration. There were two different groups involved, meaning there were two displays that tried to out do each other. We started partying even before dark with water balloon wars. The same families bought water balloon launchers and would shoot water balloons at each other down the block. And by families, I mean the grown adult men, because they were behind all this.

  And then there was the fourth of July that I was grounded. I was hardly ever grounded. I don't remember what I did. I just remember that I was lucky our neighbors started celebrating on the 3rd because at least I got to see one day's display. It may seem somewhat dishonorable to America to celebrate on a different day, but I think that came from our town's display being on the third. They do that because they have a very popular road race on the fouth. My fourths in high school were spent running that race. I got third place in my age group the first year. Instead of medals, they gave out beer steins. One year I branched out and ran the 10K (6.2 miles). Never again. I know I said in the last post that I'd want to run a half-marathon, but the 10K was my first longer racing experience, and I didn't know how to pace myself for that length. It also poured about half way through. I'm talking getting soaked down to the bone and having your shoes become heavier from the water. Then it cleared up. Go figure.

  How's that for rambling?  At least there was some unity to this post.

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