Each Day Already is a Challenge

The way it was

When I was a kid, we never had fireworks on the 4th of July. We were content with sparklers. Fireworks were things that the professionals set off. Some years we were lucky enough to go somewhere where we could see them up close and personal. Other times, we sat on our hillside and watched the fireworks in a distance. Either way, we never thought about having something like that in our own yard. No sirrreee.

Things have surely changed. When I lived in Texas, lots of the crazy people there shot guns up in the air off their balconies. Yes, people got hurt. I guess they forgot that what goes up must come down. Duh.

In Ohio, it's illegal to shoot off anything that leaves the ground. Basically, that means you can legally have sparklers and poppers and snakes. But I guess that's too tame for most folks.

You can buy fireworks that go up in the air and make a big noise - in Indiana or Kentucky - both of which are pretty close, just across the river. If you're an Ohio resident, you have to sign a form that says you're not going to shoot them off in Ohio. (Where else would an Ohio resident shoot off fireworks???)

So.......??? Half of our neighbors had fireworks and competed with each other to see who could make the most noise and "aaawwwwwwwwwww-inspiring" purrrrrties. And the remaining smoke, of course.

They take their kids to get the fireworks and sign that form that says they're not going to actually set off the fireworks in Ohio. As far as I can figure, they're teaching their kids that it's okay to completely ignore some laws. And to lie.

Way back in 1994, I read a book by Josh McDowell called Right from Wrong. In it, McDowell said that kids - even Christian kids - think there are no absolute truths anymore. That was 13 years ago. I'm sure more kids think there is no absolute truth today. After all, even though the Bible says we shouldn't lie 1) their parents ask them to say they aren't home when they are if the boss calls 2) they cheat on their taxes and 3) they buy fireworks and lie about where they will set them off.

These things matter to kids.

My son was only about 8 years old when he and his Dad stumbled into the "wrong" part of the roadside fireworks stand. There was one side for regular folks, who could legally buy the tame stuff. And there was another part for businesses and professionals.

They didn't know there were two different places. They were just both excited to see that they could buy some pretty big "boomers." When they got to the check-out counter, the guy asked to see Derek's dad's business license. He didn't have a license having anything to do with fireworks, of course. He just pulled out a business card showing that he owned a company called Wilkerson Enterprises. The guy made him sign a form that said he was licensed to have the more professional type of fireworks. He signed it, of course. He didn't want to look bad in his son's eyes.

But he did. Derek knew his dad was telling a huge fib by signing that form. And that was the beginning of his thinking that, if his dad told lies that most likely other adults did as well. His dad shrunk about two inches in Derek's mind that day. And he slipped off the pedistal where he had perched for 8 years.

Now I don't think a kid should ever think his parents are perfect. But he should be able to rely on them doing the right thing, especially in front of the kid.

I was not with them when this happened, and really didn't know Derek's thoughts about it until a few years later...when he was a teen and caught in a lie himself.

What I do know is that the mister had no business with those fireworks. Our neighbors all thought it was pretty neat that he had such big "boomers." They all gathered in our backyard and watched...as Derek's dad proceeded to try to burn down our house. Really. One of the things landed on our roof and if the garden hose had not been right there and ready to go, it probably would have done some damage. Thankfully, no one got hurt.

On this morning's news, I only heard about two instances of mishaps - nationally - with fireworks.

In one instance, the thing didn't explode and the woman leaned down to see why not. Then it did. I think the news said she died.

In the other, there were two homes, two garages and five cars burned. No injuries were mentioned. Just property.

I guess it was one luckly 4th if that's all that happened. But I imagine we just didn't hear about all the burn victims that visited the local emergency rooms.

As Derek and I got into my car last night on our way to his work place, he said, "You know it worries me that so many people are so fascinated with fire and explosions."

Yeah. Me too.

It also concerns me that parents are teaching their kids to lie.

And it concerns me that most of those folks didn't even give much thought to the reason for the holiday. To many, it's just another day off work.

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Our church did win a prize yesterday - for being the most spirited group. I don't think anyone got a count of people from our church who participated, but I'm sure the crowd was as big or bigger than last year.

I rode in the truck that pulled the float. What an experience that was. The fellow who drove had volunteered to drive his truck as the second truck - to hold bottled water that our members passed out. But since his truck was an automatic and the other volunteer's truck was a stick shift, this guy got talked into pulling the float.

Good thing parades don't go very fast. This poor guy couldn't see what was happening at the sides of the truck - and we had folks walking, kids riding bikes and kids being pulled in wagons on both sides of the truck and float.

What amazed me was that parents let their kids run to the middle of the road - in front of parade floats - trying to pick up candy that someone had tossed out to them (and missed getting any where near them).

And what amazed us all was how rude people were. After a few years of this, our church is known as the float that gives out bottled water...and people yelled their requests to the folks passing it out.

Our goal this year was to have 2,000 bottles to give out and we exceeded that. I think we collected 2,336 bottles to give out. Luckily, the Kroger float was in front of us also giving out water. (I guess that's why they didn't respond to our request for a donation of bottled water.)

Even so, the people on the parade route - especially kids - were quite rude in their requests for water. Amazing.

I spent my parade time in the truck. Afterwards, I had to walk across the parking lot to where we could get a ride back to our car. Then we went to a member's house for a cook-out party.

Just before the rains started, I told hubby that I needed to leave. My body was wanting to shut down.

I napped the first time for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, was up for maybe 30 minutes, then napped again for about 3 hours.

That has to prove that I could work a full time job. Right?