I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy!

Today is July 3rd and the 59th birthday of my cousin, Jeff Robinson.  I've got more than 30 first cousins and his is the only one I usually remember.   That's because his mom, my Aunt Jo, started having parties for him when he was about 3 and always invited all the cousins.  He was 6 years younger than me but his brother was closer to my age and as cousins go he and I were probably closer during childhood than any of the other cousins.  Being the oldest cousin on that side of the family had a certain amount of "cousin prestige", but on the other hand there were a lot of younger kids and thus fewer that I wanted to play with.     The parties were memorable.  Weather permitting we always had a cookout and it was always hot dogs and then she usually took us to the pool at Columbian Park in Lafayette.  What a great pool that was.  His birthday was sort of the opening act of our Independence Day celebrations, at least for us kids.  Happy Birthday Jeff.  

Since my dad and his brothers farmed together they didn't necessarily get a "day off".  There are not really any "holidays" on the farm. The work gets done when it needs to be done, regardless of the day.    However I do remember the first time and place I ever saw fireworks on the 4th of July and that was in the front pasture in front of my grandparent's home.   Uncle Kean had been somewhere out of state and brought a carload of big rockets back home.  In those days fireworks were not legal to be sold in Indiana but you could get them in Tennessee and Missouri and possibly some other nearby states.

A bunch of us cousins were set down on blankets in the front yard and waited anxiously for the show to begin and of course we were forbidden to leave the yard, or even get too close to the fence that divided the yard and front pasture.  I've seen lots of fireworks shows since then, and most of them were much more elaborate and consisted of many more shells, but I don't suppose any matched the anticipation and excitement of those 4th's in my grandparent's front yard. It was dark enough to set off the fireworks when the lightning bugs could be seen.   I don't remember how many years we had those shows...I don't think it was very many.   We lived about 12 miles north of Lafayette, the nearest town that always had big fireworks displays.  Monticello and Wolcott also have a long history of fireworks shows but we couldn't see them from our house...but the ones in Lafayette we could see from our house.  Not well, and we often climbed up on the barn roof for a better view, but we could see the larger bursts.  Sometimes dad loaded us all in the car and drove somewhere where we could get a better view...not close, but better than from 12 miles away.

The most memorable fireworks show I've seen as an adult was the one we took our three kids to on the Mall in Washington DC.  We sat on the grass not far from the Washington Monument which put us pretty close to the action, although we were too far from any of the music venues to enjoy that part of the program. It's hard to forget the experience, especially the experience of exiting the Mall with about a million other people after the show.

Here in Lafayette we have a good fireworks show at least a couple of times a year.  On the 4th, and usually at least one of the downtown festivals ends with fireworks.  My most enjoyable local shows have always been the Lafayette Symphony program when they held the 4th of July concert on Slater Hill at Purdue.  Their final number was always the 1812 Overture featuring real canon fire and ended with the Fireworks.  That one always made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.