Another Milestone

As you can imagine, fireworks and people with hypersensitive hearing don't always get along. Since David usually takes off with a bunch of friends, we haven't bought fireworks in years. While she enjoys the big show in the sky, viewed from afar, Pamela has never shown an interest in the tame stuff peddled at the fireworks shacks that pop up all over town this time of year.

Until now....

It all started with Wii Fit Training Plus (review here). Just as the movie Toy Story 2 taught her the joy of elevators (overcoming a decade-long phobia), the balance game Tilt City has sparked an interest in fireworks. For the past two weeks, Pamela has talked about shooting off some sparkly stuff when Steve came home to visit us for the Fourth of July festivities. I thought he would pick up something tame like sparklers, but he's an engineer. He bought a family package of all sorts of arsenal, including Roman candles, cakes (not the chocolate cake Pamela insisted I bake), snaps, poppers, something called "mad dog" (a gazillion firecrackers lined up in a belt of earsplitting noise), etc.

You know, of course, which one Steve went for first: the "mad dog".... He made a crack comment about giving it to our mad dog (the beast), and she exclaimed, "You're joking!!!"

Safely perched on the back porch, Pamela watched Steve launch one bomb after another. She kept a running commentary going in between squeals, giggles, and a few Nazgul-like shrieks.

"Dont' burn down the house!"

"Don't burn your hand. Reminds me of Johnny Tremain."

"THOMAS SUMTER! REBECCA MOTT!" (two revolutionary war heroes from South Carolina that we studed last year: The Fighting Gamecock and  The Courageous Patriot)

"Just like Little House!"

Laura Ingalls Wilder's mention of fireworks had slipped my mind, but sure enough, right on pages 249 and 250 lies a description of an Independence Day celebration Laura spent with Almanzo in These Happy Golden Years:

At supper Almanzo proposed that Carrie go with him and Laura to see the fireworks in town.... They kept the horses well outside the crowd, so that no one would be trampled or run over. In an open space at a safe distance they sat in the buggy and waited until a streak of fire rose in the darkness above the crowd and exploded as a star.... After each explosion of beauty against the darkness, Almanzo drove the circle, always bringing Barnum and Skip around in time to face the next rush and blossom of fire. Not until the last shower of sparks had faded did Almanzo and Laura drive away

Pamela watched every move Steve made and stuck around until every last explosive had been fired off. She even joined Steve in the noise making. She prepped a small balloon and stomped on it (a fear she conquered three years ago). She blew up another ballon, threw some pop pop snappers at it, but never got close enough to pop the balloon. She laughed, "I failed!" She ended up stomping on another balloon.

After the fun ended, Pamela looked at the debris on the brick walkway and announced, "Clean up tomorrow!" I encouraged her to thank her father for buying the fireworks and she walked down the driveway to the front yard, where Steve was turning off the sprinkler. She told him, "Happy Fourth of July!"

When she returned, she told me of her plans to do fireworks in 2013.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2 Corinthians 3:17