It’s amazing to me how much controversy there has been over fireworks. When I grew up in the 1940s and 1950s, we had a lot of fun shooting off firecrackers in Seattle. When we could go to our cabin on a lake in Snohomish County, we even had more fun. My dad built a cannon that we could load with a firecracker and shoot off cans.
On the Fourth, people all around the lake shot off fireworks. It was a beautiful sight.
I lived in a duplex on the east side of Vancouver until two years ago. People shot off fireworks in our neighborhood every year. Sometimes it was done individually and sometimes we got together in the middle of the block and the whole neighborhood put on a show.
I also had a dog for eight years that I had to baby-sit on the Fourth. That’s just part of being a “parent.” I also watered down the bushes and the roof on the shed in back and had hoses ready to douse a fire if necessary. And, I’m disabled.
