The 5th of July.

For most people, they see July 5^th as the day after America’s birthday. For 99.99% of America, that would be an accurate assumption. Unless you happen to be my brother and I; when we were growing up, the 5^th of July was a very important day.

Early the morning after July 4^th, my brother Gary and I would get up early and go scout for the ”coolest” fireworks we could find around our neighborhood. We’re not talking about fireworks that were still “live,” we looked for the shells of ones that had been shot off. In other words, our picking up the left over shells was comparable to picking up people’s trash. What did we know, we thought it was cool and I am happy to report we have did figure out, after a couple of years, we were basic trash collectors.

As crazy as it seems, we did find some very cool shell casings. One thing it did prove was we were shooting off some really cheap fireworks while other people were putting some really great ones into the sky. Probably our greatest find were “Black cat” brand firecrackers that were “still good” as we would call them. That and “punks” that still had some “punk” on them to light fuses of fireworks. For those of you who really want to know what a “punk” is made of, here’s the answer (and to think we put the ends in our mouths)---they are made of bamboo, a brown coating of dried manure or sawdust.

We had other traditions in our household revolving around holidays. On Passover, we always set a seat for Elijah and sure enough every year he would show up at the front door. There are others, but for sure the 5^th of July will reign supreme in my memory of this important holiday.

The photo above was taken at last night’s fireworks display. For the first time I can remember, the fireworks began before 10PM. Last night, they started about a half-hour early. Thankfully we were able to view the display---it was really good---but without my brother to help me, I am sorry to report someone else picked up the empty cases.

Thanks for stopping by.