Thursday, July 5, 2007

4th of July in Elk City

Julie and the kids and I spent the 4th right here in Elk City yesterday. I heard that on the 4th it was OK to take some fireworks to the city park and set them off. I guess I really didn't properly envision the ramifications of that statement, because apparently in Elk City EVERYBODY goes to the city park with their fireworks, and it is pretty cool. Here are some videos I took with my cell phone while I was there. Notice the smoke, and all the firework sounds too:







Pretty cool huh? This was just the collective fireworks display of all the probably 2 or 3000 people that showed up to the park with their own fireworks, the city put on a $10,000 fireworks show as well.

Then to top it all off, right after the city's firework show, God put on a show with a thunderstorm to the east of us, and a spattering of rain that sent all the people at the park scattering for home.

I thought the fireworks were cool, my kids really loved it (however it did take about 30 minutes to get Evan to come out of the car, because it kind of freaked him out), it was like a 2 or 3 hour fireworks show. It struck me though that fireworks are like alot of things we become enamored with, up close they look beautiful and powerful, but in comparison to the simple little thunderstorm that provided the backdrop for the evening, they were nothing but smoke and sparks. I don't know that many people even noticed the awesome display of lightning, until the rain came and they were forced to deal with it.

Anyway, it was fun, and if you're ever around Elk City on the 4th of July, I would recommend checking this out, because it's cool, in a chaotic, communal sort of way, and I'm sure that they can't keep doing it for too long, some whiner is bound to put and end to it at some point.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Only in Oklahoma could there be a BYOF fireworks display in the city park. That's crazy! Nothing like giving every redneck in the county the ability to blow off an appendage if he happened to not drink the last $100 of his last paycheck the weekend before.

Speaking of which, I was telling my friends and family about the time that we got liqoured up at Dax's house and I dropped a morter into the tube upside down. That was quite the display... I recall having all sorts of pretty colors whizzing by my ears pretty quickly. Also while we're travelling down memory lane, if you ever want to truly appreciate God's power in a thunderstorm, I'd recommend getting a 3 foot tall pointed aluminum hat and wearing while the lightning goes off around you. Geez, you ever wonder how we made it to 30?

fiodax said...

Leave it to you to grab the steering wheel of a trip down memory lane and pull it right into the ditch.