Friday is one of those events that has evolved into a Chicago tradition that I must admit leaves me cold.
I have never done it. And I wonder about the intelligence quotient of anyone who does partake in the festivities.
THE EVENT THAT I refer to is those people who will be among the 1 million-plus who will gather along the downtown Chicago lakefront this evening with the intent of watching the official Independence Day fireworks display.
Part of it is that I have never really understood the appeal of fireworks, or how the sound of explosions is supposed to make me feel patriotic and fortunate that my grandparents made the decision to immigrate to this country some eight decades ago.
But there is something about the pre-Independence Day festivities that I just can’t get into.
Spots close to Navy Pier have proven to be a particularly popular area to watch the pre-Independence Day fireworks display scheduled this year for Friday. Photograph provided by State of Illinois.
I think I’d sooner eat one of those giant turkey legs, followed by a half-dozen pieces of pizza and a slab or two of ribs, followed up by a giant watermelon slice, at the Taste of Chicago. Of course, if I really shoved that much greasy food down my gullet, I’d be regurgitating it right back up (plus I’d be too broke to do anything else the rest of the holiday weekend) in a matter of minutes.
THE PEOPLE I have never understood are the ones who make the point of showing up ridiculously early on July 3 so they can get a so-called “front row” seat to the fireworks display.
We’re talking about a seat along the lakefront, bringing their blankets and beach towels so they can lay out in what passes for the beach.
They stake out their spots in the sand and wait there for hours so that come nightfall, they can be in front of everybody else for “the show.”
The problem is that “the show” is in the sky. So how is one seat any better or worse than any other? It’s all happening “up there,” not in front of us.
SO IT SEEMS like many people will waste a day in the sand for nothing.
Not only that, but there’s also the fact that they will be pinned in front of the crowd. Which means that by being the first ones to show up, they also will be the last ones who get to leave.
The people who head for the lakefront just in time to catch the first colorful explosion are going to be the first ones who get out.
Perhaps I’m being alarmist, but I have always wondered how big of a catastrophe could occur in Chicago on a July 3 if some sort of disaster took place that suddenly required everyone to evacuate the lakefront.
WOULD WE WIND up with hundreds of thousands of people stuck in a mass of human flesh and bone, unable to move? Or would it get ugly and turn into a riot, with people fighting their way out of the mass?
Some people have as a phobia the thought of spiders or flying in an airplane. For me, it would be being stuck in the crowd on the lakefront, all because I was foolish enough to want to see the pre-Independence Day fireworks display.
So I don’t go.
I honestly don’t feel like I’m missing much, even though I will be the first to concede that the downtown Chicago fireworks display the day before the Independence Day holiday is an event on a grander scale than any of the fireworks displays that will take place on the holiday proper.
ALL ACROSS THE suburbs on Saturday (and on every July 4), people will get their chance to see another fireworks display. If you really need to see explosions, I’m sure you can find a municipality nearby that will put on a show for you.
Or perhaps you will have neighbors who will decide to shoot off their own collections of rockets, which they probably purchased during a recent trip to the Land of Hoosiers. Just the other day, I was at the Illinois-Indiana border where I saw a family loading up their vehicle bearing Illinois license plates with the wares they purchased from a store that specializes in fireworks (along with cheap cigarettes and pop).
I can already anticipate which of my neighbors are going to think it is their Constitutional Right to blow things up (yes, some of my neighbors have a “Beavis and Butthead” mentality to them).
And while I won’t be one of the people rushing to the telephone to call the cops (figuring that the police can’t be so dense that they don’t hear the explosions for themselves), I certainly won’t get upset if someone else does.
PERHAPS I JUST have a “get those kids off my lawn” mentality, but I have always believed that Independence Day ought to be a day of quiet reflection – one in which we contemplate the advantages we have in our lives by virtue of the accident of birth that we weren’t born in Afghanistan.
Somehow, the idea of turning the day where we celebrate the creation of our nation into a cornucopia of cheap weenies cooked on the barbecue grill and bottle rockets being blown to smithereens seems like a trivialization of what the holiday is supposed to be about.
-30-
I have never done it. And I wonder about the intelligence quotient of anyone who does partake in the festivities.
THE EVENT THAT I refer to is those people who will be among the 1 million-plus who will gather along the downtown Chicago lakefront this evening with the intent of watching the official Independence Day fireworks display.
Part of it is that I have never really understood the appeal of fireworks, or how the sound of explosions is supposed to make me feel patriotic and fortunate that my grandparents made the decision to immigrate to this country some eight decades ago.
But there is something about the pre-Independence Day festivities that I just can’t get into.
Spots close to Navy Pier have proven to be a particularly popular area to watch the pre-Independence Day fireworks display scheduled this year for Friday. Photograph provided by State of Illinois. I think I’d sooner eat one of those giant turkey legs, followed by a half-dozen pieces of pizza and a slab or two of ribs, followed up by a giant watermelon slice, at the Taste of Chicago. Of course, if I really shoved that much greasy food down my gullet, I’d be regurgitating it right back up (plus I’d be too broke to do anything else the rest of the holiday weekend) in a matter of minutes.
THE PEOPLE I have never understood are the ones who make the point of showing up ridiculously early on July 3 so they can get a so-called “front row” seat to the fireworks display.
We’re talking about a seat along the lakefront, bringing their blankets and beach towels so they can lay out in what passes for the beach.
They stake out their spots in the sand and wait there for hours so that come nightfall, they can be in front of everybody else for “the show.”
The problem is that “the show” is in the sky. So how is one seat any better or worse than any other? It’s all happening “up there,” not in front of us.
SO IT SEEMS like many people will waste a day in the sand for nothing.
Not only that, but there’s also the fact that they will be pinned in front of the crowd. Which means that by being the first ones to show up, they also will be the last ones who get to leave.
The people who head for the lakefront just in time to catch the first colorful explosion are going to be the first ones who get out.
Perhaps I’m being alarmist, but I have always wondered how big of a catastrophe could occur in Chicago on a July 3 if some sort of disaster took place that suddenly required everyone to evacuate the lakefront.
WOULD WE WIND up with hundreds of thousands of people stuck in a mass of human flesh and bone, unable to move? Or would it get ugly and turn into a riot, with people fighting their way out of the mass?
Some people have as a phobia the thought of spiders or flying in an airplane. For me, it would be being stuck in the crowd on the lakefront, all because I was foolish enough to want to see the pre-Independence Day fireworks display.
So I don’t go.
I honestly don’t feel like I’m missing much, even though I will be the first to concede that the downtown Chicago fireworks display the day before the Independence Day holiday is an event on a grander scale than any of the fireworks displays that will take place on the holiday proper.
ALL ACROSS THE suburbs on Saturday (and on every July 4), people will get their chance to see another fireworks display. If you really need to see explosions, I’m sure you can find a municipality nearby that will put on a show for you.
Or perhaps you will have neighbors who will decide to shoot off their own collections of rockets, which they probably purchased during a recent trip to the Land of Hoosiers. Just the other day, I was at the Illinois-Indiana border where I saw a family loading up their vehicle bearing Illinois license plates with the wares they purchased from a store that specializes in fireworks (along with cheap cigarettes and pop).
I can already anticipate which of my neighbors are going to think it is their Constitutional Right to blow things up (yes, some of my neighbors have a “Beavis and Butthead” mentality to them).
And while I won’t be one of the people rushing to the telephone to call the cops (figuring that the police can’t be so dense that they don’t hear the explosions for themselves), I certainly won’t get upset if someone else does.
PERHAPS I JUST have a “get those kids off my lawn” mentality, but I have always believed that Independence Day ought to be a day of quiet reflection – one in which we contemplate the advantages we have in our lives by virtue of the accident of birth that we weren’t born in Afghanistan.
Somehow, the idea of turning the day where we celebrate the creation of our nation into a cornucopia of cheap weenies cooked on the barbecue grill and bottle rockets being blown to smithereens seems like a trivialization of what the holiday is supposed to be about.
-30-
1 comment:
the fireworks were short and nothing to brag about a huuuuge bust
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