Home on the Fourth of July
I love fireworks, especially when I can be right under them: the blazing flames seem to shoot right at me, and I can feel the explosive boom in my chest. Without that fireworks experience, the fourth of July isn’t completely satisfying—even if I had a great day with family and friends in Arcadia, at a beach down the Cape, or on a clear, cool lake in New Hampshire. Being close to a really good fireworks display is important to me on Independence Day, and anything short of that is (harsh as it sounds) disappointing. I used to get my fireworks fix by standing on the Longfellow Bridge and watching them shoot over me at the Charles River, accompanied by the sounds of the Boston Pops—an amazing experience. Then I moved to Lowell, and I was hooked for life. Whether it’s at City Hall for Winterfest (cool excitement, further sparked by fear the building will go up in flames) or on the Merrimack River, with sounds from music playing at Sampas Pavilion—Lowell does a very good job with fireworks and the traffic surrounding them. Despite the rain, today was no exception although we only made it to the Rourke Bridge (not as close as I wanted due to guests wary of the rain). From my vantage point, I could see the display from Sampas Pavilion as well as two other displays further down the river—the three of them like a string of bursting flowers lighting the night sky. I was reminded why I love fireworks and how thankful I am to have a home in this city, and how grateful I am to be an American.