Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for July 02, 2023

It’s hell getting old. When we were young we’d sneak up to the rope to get as close as we could to the fireworks. Not so much now.

Must be pretty far away for that long a sound delay.

The last time I went to a big show, a large firework failed to explode, they couldn’t find it, and the police and fire department wouldn’t allow anyone to leave for two hours! With no bathrooms!

Man’s got a point. There’s an artistry to finding the best place to watch fireworks from. I found a good one a few years back in a factory parking lot. Thankfully, private property rules tend to get a bit relaxed on the evening of the Fourth.

Meanwhile, all the dogs and cats in the area are terrified.

My husband and I with friends use to go out on our boat to watch the Fireworks from Annapolis. It was a beautiful show. Unfortunately, the person who use to do this had to stop. We heard that he was getting older and couldn’t keep up with buying and setting them up anymore.

Wow, a joke about the speed of light vs the speed of sound!

No fireworks at Mount Rushmore…sad

There were some really great fireworks on the island across from me last night….about a half mile away. Of course there was a delay between sound and the explosions, but the repercussion….that really loud “Boom!” was great. My dog didn’t like it as much as I did, but he seemed more annoyed than scared.

Better without all the light pollution!

When one gets to a certain age, a lot of formerly fun stuff no longer impresses you.

My last house was on a lake, there was an island just across from my house, that’s where they fired off the fireworks display on the 4th. We would all just sit on my deck and watch the display, I would let people park in my yard so they could go to the park and watch. Looking back, I should have charged for parking. LOL…just kidding.

Being hearing impaired these are one of the few things in life I can hear clearly. I hate the noise of fireworks I swear they make my ears want to bleed. Love the light show though.

Watch them on the TV, good enough for me.

We are thinking of riding our bicycles to the display. It remains to be seen if we will or not.

Not looking forward to the brush fires. It’s really dry out there.

In 1971 or 1972, my husband-to-be and I lived on the second floor of an apartment across from the LA Coliseum. That was the year Nichiren Shoshu did a long and astonishing fireworks display there. We sat on the back porch and saw the whole thing, for free. We’ll never forget it.

In the Finger Lakes district of NY State, there’s a tradition of lighting road flares along the shorelines of some of the lakes. Quietly beautiful. There’s been an effort to substitute red LED lanterns for the road flares – too many personal injuries and brush fires from the flares, as well as the chemical residue right next to the water.

Allegedly there was a great deal of Canada Day fireworks down at the park by the lake last night. well attended according to local FB updates. I slept through it.

I can see the city’s fireworks from my deck. It is through the trees but still colorful to see. The sound of it comes seconds later.

St. Joseph, MI does fireworks over Lake Michigan. This year, it’s tomorrow night, 7/3. The symphony orchestra plays 1812 and marches during the fireworks show. It sounds and looks like the fireworks are right over our heads.

We live in a suburb of Milwaukee and alot of the fireworks are somewhat close in proximity. We found out that if we go to the Motor Vehicle Dept, sit on the hill of the parking lot, we can see from four different areas at least. Sometimes more. Because it is a DMV parking lot, not a huge crowd, probably 125-150 at most. No lines to get out, no traffic jams and it is the only place I will go for my fireworks

They didn’t listen to the music on the radio???

We have fireworks in the park behind our house every year; they’ve been going on there for the past 90 yrs. Don’t need to leave our property and get a great show

They had a nice one last night in Flomaton, Alabama. Some of the later shots look like they were being aimed closer toward the crowd. It was impressive.

I got so I hated hearing fireworks when I still had my beloved Li’l Daisy Duke, my Dalmatian. Fireworks scared the bejeebers out of her, and she would shiver and shake no matter how I cuddled and reassured her. Poor thing. I was lucky to have her for nearly 17 years, and I still miss her. :’(

When we lived in Florida we’d put up with the trafffic to take the grandkids to see the fireworks. Now that we’re back in Western PA I just stay home. Besides, the rain has been so heavy I’m not sure anyone had fireworks this year.

The fireworks in our little town of South Haven MI are always on the 3rd and shot off the north pier over lake Michigan. Thank goodness we live a block from the beach, so we just walk down, still a lot of foot traffic.

My wife is gone now, but I remember several Fourths where we would go and park on an access road across from the fairgrounds, where they had the big fireworks show. There was a freeway in between us and the action, but we thoroughly enjoyed sitting on the side of the road out of the way and watching it all. Advertised as “the best $5 show in three counties” (what they were charging per-head in the 70s – TWICE what movie tickets cost), we saw it all for free, for a number of years. We were always surprised each year when we were alone to watch from there.

That’s exactly the same way I feel. We can see our town’s fireworks from our front lawn – it’s about a mile away.

I live in a senior housing complex that used to be a high school. I’m on the third floor, with huge windows overlooking the old playing fields, where the town staged their fireworks display last night. No braving the crowds, no park & walk, no mosquitos…best seats in the house and I didn’t even have to wear pants! Being old paid off this time! XD

Talking about fireworks, our 2nd daughter worked in Chicago, out of the 31st floor of an older building on the corner of Michigan Ave. and the river. It wasn’t for the 4th but for the Chicago Christmas Tree Lighting parade. The fireworks were on a barge, on the river, below her windows. So cool being able to open the old windows and watch the display going off a few floors below us.

Some [mumbles] years ago, my mom’s house had a great view of the town’s fireworks display. She and her husband would go on their summer holiday, and I’d go over to their place to watch the fireworks in the comfort of their front yard. Now I have the house and would like watch the display from the yard, but the neighbor’s trees grew in all that time to the point they cover up most of the display. Still, I’m close enough to walk to the display if I really want to view it and avoid the nasty traffic that always ensues afterwards.

The jerks have been setting them off in my neighborhood for 2 weeks.

A “few” years ago Nashville Sounds did fireworks after every Friday home game at Greer stadium. There was nothing better than sitting down the first base line and watchng fireworks just beyond the outfield fence 350 feet away. The compression off your chest with every boom was awesome!!!!!

Getting close lost its appeal when we were sitting in Mile high stadium after a soccer game. We were moved to a different section way up. When the fireworks started we got covered in ash and shrapnel of the paper sort

We stayed back and really enjoyed the show…plus we could get out of the parking lot and home before midnight.

In the late 70s we lived in housing at Ft Hood (now Ft Cavazos), close enough to see the July 4 fireworks from our backyard. We settled in, saw a handful of lovely explosions, then a pause before everything else went off on the ground and in the boxes. Someone doing the lighting dropped his cigar in one of the boxes. Big boom! Lots of sirens. 20 years later I’m telling this story where the Old Sarge and I were working for an Army contractor, when a retired sergeant major back in the break area hollered: “You should have been in the stadium!”

Yeah last night I didn’t even stay for the fireworks came home at 8:30.

Have been afraid of fireworks most of my life so far. However, for some reason I am not afraid to fire a black powder cannon (no ball) with a burning “match” (cord treated to keep it burning) or a black powder flintlock long gun or a modern rifle.

I’m 73 and we love fireworks, but we’re not going to mess with the crowds and congestion. We watch every year on TV. And when someone close enough to our neighborhood shoots some off, I will go out and watch.