Skyrockets in flight...

I was a kid back when that little bit of lyric was popular on the radio (and it was a couple of more years before I was old enough to know what the song was about). Back then, 4th of July fireworks were something to be really excited about -- usually only cities (or a company with a large amount of spare cash) could put on a fireworks display, and then it was maybe a couple of dozen shells with a few big Oooh/Ahhh stars thrown in for good measure. In our area, Decatur would launch some, the Surf Club would have a small display (my mom played cards with the surf club owner), Mt Zion would sometimes have a display at the high school, and a couple of years I saw them at Sullivan while at church camp. But these days...

Some one in Carrington (the neighborhood our builder really wanted us to build in) was shooting off shells on the third - they stopped while Mount Zion fireworks went off, then started again after the show was finished. Last night, Sharon sat on the porch and watched at least 3 shows going off within a mile of our house. And these weren't just bottle rockets and roman candles, these were big star shells -- the only real difference being the height they reached. Some pretty impressive displays, from the average guy in his backyard (fortunatley, there's been a bit of rain lately, so any errant explosions didn't star any wildfires). It used to be a special occasion to see fireworks, now almost anyone can do it.

It's almost enough to be boring...