Disney and Pixar did a great movie when they did UP! However, I find as I get older, I find I relate to the character Carl Fredricksen (done by Edward Asner) more and more, and I still have another fifteen years to go to get “there.”

The community where I live had their annual firework display last evening. The park across the street is the launch site, so sitting on the veranda allows me to see the whole event from a third-row seat POV. (Well, not quite, as there’s a street light in the way to light the parking area by the building. You need something to shield the minor supernova bright LED on the pole…annoying, but manageable.)

My building is devoted to senior living facilities, but there is a sub-division full of family duplex units managed by the same company on the other side of the building, so there’s a LOT of locals in the area, and the presence of my neighbor’s kids/grandkids/nieces/nephews/inlaws/outlaws insures there’s a constant stream of people wandering past all evening. It’s almost as interesting a show watching the people as the sky. Not to mention the (invisible from the patio, but clearly heard) launches from the 40 other buildings behind mine and those firing from the eight-building apartment complex across the street. Many of the visible ones were roman candles and low-cost/power items from the local general stores, but the Phantom Fireworks store (located about a kilometer away) apparently had a good year from the sounds of it.

Finally, after about an hour and a half of the amateur warm-up acts, the stage cleared for the main event, hearlded by a single firework launched into the darkening sky. You could hear (and feel) the excitement in the crowds awaiting the start from the patios on all four floors of my building. It got (relatively) quiet while the smallest voices announced “Grandma, it’s starting!”

It was over in around twenty minutes, give or take a few seconds. In my opinion, easily the WORST firework display I’ve seen in 60+ years. It wasn’t for lack of trying, however.

By my rough estimate, they launched about a thousand projectiles into the sky. Apart from the initial launch (I believe it was a test shot to see what the wind conditions aloft were), there was never another period where there were not at least 3 shells bursting in the sky at a time, with several sessions of a dozen or more simultaniously exploding at once. The finale had too many going off at once to count, but they wasted more in the last 90 seconds than what a full 90 minute display used to send up back in the 60’s and 70’s when I was growing up.

Don’t get me wrong, I like watching fireworks. The operative word here is WATCHING, though. Looking for the launch streamer and tracking the dark projectile along the path, anticipating where and when it would explode. Then, the BANG and watching the sparks spreading across the sky. Watching them die out and listening to the “oohs” and “ahhs” from those around me and discussing just how great the best ones were. Then a modest delay and repeat the process. A great way to kill an hour or so on the mid-summer holiday.

But this year’s event also gave me pause to consider the plight of my fellow veterans that served in combat zones (I was on a ship and was never involved directly in combat…I honor and respect my fellow brothers and sisters in arms who DID see combat directly and I salute you!). In past displays, there was the chest-crushers (nothing to see, but a huge BANG that generated a tangible shock wave you could track by the echos returning from distant buildings and hills) sent up to make sure you were still awake (or to awaken the babes that were sleeping…sorry mom). But they made up a very small percentage of the show, typically only 2-3 in the whole evening. Last night there were a couple of sessions where there must have been streams of 15-20 going off in carpet-bombing fashion. Maybe there was a half second or so between a shell and the next, almost too fast for the flash to die away from one before the next exploded. I’m reasonably certain there were some seasoned vets that were looking for shelter…

Technology has evolved a lot since I was a kid. There are shaped charge fireworks that explode into identifiable shapes: hearts, stars, circles. I think (guess?) there were some of these last night, but it was difficult to tell as before one shot opened totally to view, another couple were going off, too, both near and far. The shells that changed colours a couple of times or launched screamers and spinners were not noticable as they were masked by several others vying for your (limited) attention.

Conspicuously absent was the parachute flare launch of my youth, where a shell would burst and a brilliant white flare would be suspended from a parachute, to float several minutes before burning out. It was fun to watch and see if it would reach the ground before going out (it never did, but still…). Had they used a couple, sending the second up only after the first died off, they might have spanned the whole show…

I tried to appreciate the huge sky-filling displays which only made up a small percentage of last millenium shows, but these, too, paled into insignificance when drowned out by another dozen lesser shots overlaid at the same time. I really tried to appreciate the show, but I believe they compressed a great show by at least a factor of nine, taking a show that could have (read: should have) taken three hours and compressed it into sit-com length (without the commercials). Apparently I’m not ADHD enough for this kind of display.

Next year, I’m considering setting Mr. Spatula (my goldfish) out on the patio to watch the show and get his take on how good it is. Though, full disclosure requires me to declare ahead of time I don’t think this is going to work that well…

I think he has too long of an attention span, too…

Phred

post 85 of n