My First Real 4th of July

In honor of Independence Day I've decided to share what I think is probably my first real memory. I was about 3 1/2 and my Grammy & Papa Gene went to watch the fireworks every year. That year they decided that my brother, Chris, and I were old enough to join them. So we went to the local college, Mt.Sac to see the show. We arrived and piled our arms full of hot dogs, popcorn, soda, cotton candy. I can still remember the way it smelled as we walked up the stairs to find a place on the bleachers. I was SO excited. First, we were getting all these delicious treats, then we were gonna see some amazing thing that everyone had been talking about!

Weeeellll...I don't think 2 fireworks had gone off before I was hiding under the bleachers. I was scared for my life! I was sure (and kind of still am today) that one of those balls of fire was gonna land on someone before it went out! And it was SO loud! I spent the entire show (I'm sure, in retrospect that it was like 10 minutes) under the bleacher bench, wedged back against the concrete as far as I could be. Grammy tried mighty hard to get me to come out and sit in her lap to watch the "Grand Finale!" - I wasn't having any of that.

These things I can still remember: the smells of my first real 4th of July, the excitement, the thrill, the fear, my stubbornness & certainty that someone was gonna get hurt and it wasn't gonna be me.

What I don't remember of this story happens to be Grammy's favorite part to tell. It shouldn't surprise anyone that I was a very precocious and opinionated child. :-) Grammy says that after they carried my still wide eyed little body back to the car & everyone was calmly on the way home I squinted my eyes & asked her & Papa Gene if they were planning on going back for the show next year. They both said, "Yes! Of Course!" I replied, "Well, you can just get me a babysitter 'cause I'm not going!" I can just hear my 3 year old self and know exactly how I felt.