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Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their young children Camilla and Blaise. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site is ABC Family. …
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Rebecca Teti

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Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in …
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Robyn Lee is the managing editor of Faith & Family magazine. She is (yikes!) an almost 30 year-old, single lady, living in Connecticut with her two cousins in a small bungalow-style kit house built by her great uncle in the 1950s. She also conveniently lives next door to her sister, brother-in-law …
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Firework Frenzy

How do you feel about them?

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Just me on Wednesday, July 01, 2009 7:00 PM

Happy Canada Day!

I practically grew up in Canada.  My childhood home is less than a mile from the Canadian border.

Our wedding reception was held on the sixth floor of a building near the river that separates the US and Canada, and my younger brothers had fun proving to their disbelieving cousins that the buildings on the other side of the river actually were in a completely different country.  It blew the cousins’ minds.

Along with the obvious benefits like being able to say I’ve crossed a foreign border just to have dinner, growing up so close to Canada had perks.  One of my favorites: at the beginning of July we got to watch two sets of fireworks over the river.  The Canada Day fireworks were followed just three days later by the American Independence Day fireworks.  When I was a teenager, my friends and I religiously attended both.

There are few things that say “summer” to me more than celebratory pyrotechnics.  I love it all, from sparklers to the biggest, baddest public fireworks display you can find.

Some of my happiest childhood memories are from July fourth.  In the morning we’d run through a few dozen of those little capsules of powder that make a bang! when they hit the pavement.  Then we’d wait impatiently until dusk, which meant sparklers.  Those exhausted, we’d wait even more impatiently until it got dark enough that Dad would break out the real firecrackers.  They were little ones, just cones and fountains and other low-key stuff, but to us kids they were magic.

Now that I’m in the stage of motherhood where I have only very young children, fireworks are not a big part of my life.  But I can’t wait until my kids are old enough to stay up late enough to attend a community fireworks show, and to play safely with sparklers, and to enjoy the bright shower of the beginning of July the way I always have.  I hope it’ll end up being a good part of their childhood, too.


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Comments
8
Filed under celebrations, fireworks, independence day, july

Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 
Posted by Anna on Wednesday, Jul 1, 2009 10:26 PM (EDT):

I am missing going to fireworks displays right now while the kids are little.  2 1/2 yo dd and 6 wk old ds are too jittery about loud noises for it to be enjoyable for them. 

We never do home fireworks; my dad is an ophthalmologist and *hates* the 4th of July like all er docs and eye surgeons do.  He’s already had a couple kids this year, both of whom burned their eyes with punks.  So we just go to some of the big displays the city has and leave it at that.

 
Posted by Kate on Wednesday, Jul 1, 2009 11:22 PM (EDT):

We broke out the sparklers and little pop crackers tonight. I may be an expat, but I can still celebrate Canada Day! Liam wasn’t home though so we’ll leave the actual firecrackers and small fireworks for Saturday. People set them off - in various sizes - all over the city here in New Orleans, so you can get quite a show just sitting on your porch.

 
Posted by Regina on Wednesday, Jul 1, 2009 11:46 PM (EDT):

I’m the daughter of a fireman, so we hide on July 4th!  Additionally, I live in a part of the world that goes absolutely anarchic on Independence Day.  I wish I could send you all a little “sound link” so that you can experience it.  Transplant residents (like my dh) are always horrified by the effect of virtually no community displays, but many, many individual, Lite beer-induced displays.  Let’s just say, all the neighborhood dogs are very unhappy on Independence Day around here!  Hark, as I write this, some comedian had decided to do a test run!

 
Posted by Jeanne on Wednesday, Jul 1, 2009 11:56 PM (EDT):

I’m Canadian, and I live in Québec, so we get two set of fireworks, exactly one week apart, the first for the feastday of St John the Baptist (patron saint of Québec) also known more secularly as “la fête nationale”, and the second for Canada Day.  Not every town in Canada does Canada day, but ours also happens to be a military town, so we get both.  We go to both.

 
Posted by Lindsayg16 on Thursday, Jul 2, 2009 2:44 AM (EDT):

It’s own of my fave holidays of the year the July long weekend. Like you said SUMMER, but also a reminder for me of how lucky I lucky I am to live where I do - obvs that applies to many countries of course, but lucky nonetheless.

 
Posted by Petroni on Thursday, Jul 2, 2009 12:25 PM (EDT):

I LOVE watching fireworks displays.  I really do prefer the big public displays, though; my family would sometimes set off our own fireworks when I was a kid, and it always scared me.  We’ll be watching the fireworks over the national Mall from a friend’s balcony, as has become our tradition of late.  She has a great view, and we’re away from the insane crowds that descend on D.C. for the Fourth.  Not sure you could pay me enough to actually hang out with the masses on the Mall all day just to be closer to the show, but I adore watching from just across the river!

 
Posted by Nettacow on Thursday, Jul 2, 2009 9:59 PM (EDT):

I don’t mind watching a community show, but I really don’t like to hear the pop-pop-pop-pop BOOM BOOM BOOM that goes on for a week before and a week after, usually when the little one and/or ME are trying to sleep.

 
Posted by Andrea on Monday, Jul 6, 2009 9:24 AM (EDT):

I love fireworks too.  When I see them go off, I always get just as excited as I was when I was a kid.  If you don’t mind me asking, where did you grow up, Arwen?  I’m a Michigander myself.


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