This is actually a funny story. I watched the 4th of July fireworks from the roof of the building I work in. I went last year met up with some people from work and really enjoyed it. This I ended up being there by myself. I left my house a little after 7:30. I figured better to be there a little early and get a place to sit. I got to the office around 8:15 or so. I checked in. The building management had asked a couple of weeks earlier who wanted to see the fireworks from the roof. There is a limited number of people that can be on the roof so the management wanted a list of people who’d be there.
I stopped in my office and got some water and a magazine that I happened to have at my desk. I went up to the roof. There were a couple of groups of people up there. They’d brought food and were having dinner and waiting for the fireworks to start. There were still a couple of unclaimed chairs once of which I too for my own. I found myself an open space where I would have a good view of the fireworks and sat down and started to read. Although it had been hot during the day it was starting to cool down and the humidity wasn’t all that bad. It had all the makings for a really great night.
The fun began when more people started arriving. A family came along and ended up being right next to me. A sitting right next to me was this incredibly obnoxious kid. He and his mother had a running verbal battle over one thing after another for a good 15 minutes. He was rocking in his chair. His mother wanted him to sit down in the chair an get comfortable because it would be a little while before the fireworks stated. He had some sort of noise maker that he kept playing with that his mother wanted him to stop playing with.
More people arrived and the mother advised the kid that he might want to move or else he might not be able to have a good view. He promptly moved his chair right up next to the fence that marked the boundaries of where people were allowed to be. Thankfully, I thought to myself, this was on the opposite side of where I was. I started to think maybe some peace and quite. But that was not to be the case. I figured out where the kid learned all of his mouthing off from his mother. There was a good half hour before the fireworks were to start and I don’t think she stopped talking the entire time. And I’m not talking about having a conversation with someone. She just talked and talked and well you get the idea. One of her best comments was how the fireworks probably would start late because everything must start late now that Obama is in office. I came very close to saying something but thought better of it. Why ruin the night by same something.
Finally these people moved a little and I thought I was in the clear but that was not to be the case. Along came another group of people. One women was dressed in sort of a halter top. And perhaps 20 or so years ago she might have been able to pull this off but not now. She’s one of those people that had been out in the sun way too much and it was starting to catch up with her. She had her husband and daughter came over towards me. The first thing out of the woman’s mouth was that there should be more chairs for people to sit in. Of course it was a few minutes before 9 when they arrived so perhaps if they’d wanted chairs they should have arrived a little earlier than that.
The woman struck up a conversation with the people sitting on the other side of me (who were no problem at all). We quickly learned they were from Pittsburgh. In fact for a few minutes Pittsburgh seemed to be coming out of her mouth every other word. The daughter then chimed in to say this was the first 4th of July she could remember in a while where she wasn’t at an internet cafe. I believe she was the person who worked in the building.
One thing I learned about Pittsburgh is that there is some fireworks maker family that lives there and that’s the reason Pittsburgh’s fireworks are always so good. They left the impression that DC’s wouldn’t match up. I wanted to say but then again there in Pittsburgh but I was good and didn’t say anything.
The daughter made up for the fact she wasn’t at an internet cafe but essentially texting during the entire time the fireworks were going on. The only time she wasn’t looking down at her phone was in trying to take a picture she then handed off here camera to her mother. And then to comment about the fireworks that was the first one that wasn’t boring.
It was difficult for me to figure out how she could say this when she wasn’t watching them.
I thought they were wonderful as always. A great setting. A great night. A great show with a wonderful finale. On the way off the roof (sort of the parting gift for the night) was this comment: only 20 minutes you think they could do better in Washington, DC. I thought you can always come back from where you came from.
As I said I thought they were great. I had to share this story with someone so I called up my dad. Ed and Jennifer were over and about to set off the fireworks they had bought. Springfield had canceled fireworks the last couple of years. I told the story and we all got a good laugh out of it.
My final destination for the day was DuPont Italian Kitchen. I got some garlic bread with mozzarella, tomato and basil on it and a strawberry daiquiri. It was a great way to end a spectacular and very amusing night.
