A few years ago I would have hoped to be in Boston today for the 30th anniversary of the Bicentennial concert (first use, IIRC, of Tschaikovskiy's 1812 Overture as American patriotic/celebratory music, and beginning the tradition of Boston Pops public concerts on the Esplanade-- perhaps someone would correct me).
I watched that one on TV and noted that my parents felt that it was the first time Americans seemed pleased to embrace their national identity since about 1969. Of course we still had to live through the Carter administration...but it seems to me that a sort of national rebirth took place between the Boston Pops concert of July 4, 1976 and the US Olympic hockey victory on February 22, 1980.
While there have been setbacks and growth spurts since, we have not yet sunk to the defeatist depths that seemed so pervasive from the "Tet Offensive" of 1968 (historically more analogous to the "Battle of the Bulge" almost exactly 24 years earlier) until '76.
So, I wanted to go to Boston this year. Today, I'm glad to be here, though I could wish for some who aren't to be here with me; my girlfriend, f'r'instance.
Have a safe and happy 4th, y'all. Today is about Us.
Just before the live music started, SirKit went down to the car in the garage to return some of our picnic things, the umbrella, etc. The kids and I were kind of just lounging around; we were about 6 rows of people from the front of the deck that overlooked the river. All of a sudden we heard the crowd behind us began to ROAR!! We turned to see what was up and a Stealth Bomber was flying right over us!! It was awesome, and so nice to see people so excited about seeing it! It flew right over us, right down the center of the Charles, and as it passed the Hatch Shell and park, over the simulcast, you could hear THEM screaming with delight! When it passed them, it banked and flew north over Somerville and Malden. It was one of the most exciting things I've ever seen. I was so worried that SirKit had missed it, but when he got back, he said he had just come back out onto the roof deck from the ramp down to the garage when he heard the folks at the back of the deck start yelling and saw them pointing up, so he looked up and saw it too.
After the Stealth flew over, we got a simulcast of the concert from the Hatch shell, just down the Charles River from us. The crowd on the roof and at the Hatch Shell was very lively and sang along to all the songs we knew. The 1812 Overture is ALWAYS a hit with the crowd, though, and the Pops uses real cannons as accompaniment. When you're watching on TV, they always show the cannoneers doing their thing; it's fun! We'll have to watch it tonight!
That was a fun night, and we had the best seats in the house for the fireworks because you could not only see them being shot from the barges, but you could also see the reflections from the glass sides of the buildings in downtown Boston. The only downside was that we got lost somewhere in Somerville on the way home. It took us over an hour to find our way back to the Pike!
In 1987, we took Paul and David to DC to watch the fireworks there. We got there early and were able to be close to the Capitol Building and could listen to the Symphony being broadcast to the crowd. The fireworks were wonderful! That was fun, too, but getting out of town, again, was AWFUL! It took us an hour to walk, with the crowd, to the Metro entrance, then another hour to ride back to Gaithersburg, where we were staying with SirKit's sister and her family.