Fireworks

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Jewel-I Forth.

Back at church: Judah, Evangeline, and Hesed were returned from vacation and General Assembly.

OLeif on violin: 7:30 rehearsal.

Collette in nursery: four screaming kids, including twins.

Sunday School: seven ecumenical councils.

OLeif play round 2.

Make deviled eggs: after another trip to church to retrieve the eggs from the fridge which Collette had forgotten.

Puck nap.

Combs’.

And in other news, Linnea-Irish seemed to be recovering from a mammoth bleeding swimmer’s ear which required three different types of medication.

Previously, at breakfast…

“I blessed all over your shirt, Mama! When I blessed, I had to cover my mouf.”

Over at the house, Linnea-Irish had returned from playing with the neighbor girls, holding her shin in a little pain.

“What happened?”

“We were playing horse-jumping. I was the fence.”

After an hour and a half nap for OLeif and Puck, they departed, with Carrie-Bri and Linnea-Irish, for the Combs’ in Florissant. When arrived, two of Aunt Petunia’s sisters were there, Uncle Larry, and Uncle Bobs from Sydney.

“Man, I could listen to him talk all day,” said Linus. “I don’t even care what it’s about.”

He played some cards with Linus and called all the ladies ‘dear’. Those foreigners. It was nice having him a part of the extended-extended family.

Meanwhile, Puck has having all sorts of grand fun with Mila, the puppy, calling her a ‘baby dog’ and chasing (and being chased) around the backyard between burgers, deviled eggs, and potato salad.

Then the storm rolled in. All the kids and some of the adults went outside to sit on the front lawn and watch it enter. Until the rain began to fall. Briefly, all in all.

Which was followed with the sheet cake Grandma had made up displaying the St. Louis Arch and Fredbird, for Bobs’ benefit.

“He passed the test,” she said. “He knew what both of them were.”

She had also made up a donut for him covered in Vegemite as a joke. It did look like chocolate until he took a bite, and thought it was pretty fun.

Most of the kids were in the living room, congregating together. Uncle Mo walked through.

“What a motley crew,” he said.

“You kind of lived here on the other side of the tracks,” Dad said to him later. “Growing up.”

“Yeah,” replied Uncle Mo. “I was a part of the riff-raff.”

Then he went off to bother Lucia.

“Help, Carrie! Help!” Lucia cried.

“No, I’m enjoying this,” Carrie replied.

And OLeif was in the living room squashing Collette’s siblings.

“Help, Collette! Help!”

The adults had been gathered around the table talking of life in Sydney and laughing at Uncle Bobs and his funny ‘foreigner’ things he would do, such as… At his first Cardinal’s game, he would call out things like, ‘Go The Cardinals!’ And, when two men were on base, ‘Home run! Home run!’ And everyone around him in the stands was laughing…

After the rain had subsided, Puck declared loudly to everyone that he was going off to the park now.

“But what about the cake?” Aunt Day asked him.

“The cake can’t go,” Puck replied seriously.

Then off to the fireworks. Puck’s first time. A bit of a walk through the neighborhoods past Mom’s and Dad’s and Uncle Mo’s, Aunt Petunia’s, Aunt Corliss’, Uncle Clarence, Uncle Balthasar, and Aunt Tuuli’s high school… like a Civil War battlefield from the cracks of the fireworks and the blue smoke sifting across it.

And as they found their spot on the rain-showered grass, the first test-shots were fired. Collette loved that sound. The ‘Earth-Shakers’, as they had always called them. And the biggest level of sound she had heard since Israel. The closest resembling the soul-searing thunder of fighter jet three hundred feet above one’s head.

The kids passed out light ropes and settled in for the show.

There was another pop as a firework lit the sky. Silence.

“Oh, well, that’s it,” said OLeif. “Time to go home, folks.”

“What’d I tell you,” said Linus. “We’re in a recession.”

Just before the fireworks really began, Joe called to wish everyone a happy Fourth. He had just gotten off work and was off to the fireworks with his buddies himself.

And then the light-show began. Pops and sizzles of color, occasionally commented by Mom as being ‘Oh, that’s so pretty’, until they were followed by a gut-rending boom. Although Collette had to admit that they were not quite as impressive as even four years ago. Perhaps their seating situation did not lend them to proper echo off any nearby hill. But it was still a good show. Puck enjoyed the half hour, asking ‘Where the fireworks come from?’ and only occasionally asked for his ears to be covered when the booms became near-Earth-Shaking. There were a few of those thrown into the mix as well.

And everything ended at shortly after ten o’clock. A good, successful Fourth of July.

“If he were to punch you in the face, you’d have to fight off the urge to thank him.”

~ “The Most Interesting Man in the World”