A late 4th of July . . .

ok . . .so i'm a little late with this post.

our 4th of july activities have become a family tradition. for about 28 years now my dad has been shooting fireworks shows. he started shooting the local show at gateway in beaumont. for about 15 years now he has been doing a show in mont belview. (which is about 1 hour away) art has been helping for 10 years and one day may have his own show.



our 4th of july are exciting. the chickies start out early with some sale shopping. the guys however start their day out with dashing around trying to get together everything for the big show. my dad always waits till the last minute and usually he calls mom a few times to get her to bring the forgotten items. i can't even count the number of last minute flash lights that are bought and lost each year.

usually the fireworks are lit by hand. the guys have to dig holes for the pipes to fit in. each shell is loaded one at a time and lit with a flare. i never watch the show cause i'm always afraid something will happen. sometimes there are no problems but there have been a few mishaps like burnt hair or eyebrows... LOL



this year was a little different. dad finally got his 'electric' show. i think he was excited until he started wiring it. the pipes came on a trailer and each shell had to loaded into the pipes. then wires from each shell had to be attached to the 'mother' board then connected to a battery. dad and my brother spent about 5 hours loading the shells. once everything was wired then the trailer was moved to the location of the show. about 20 extention cords were used to connect the trailer to the 'mother' board.
dad said it was easier to shoot but the getting ready was harder.

all in all we had a good time and the show was a success.

~jess~