The Fourth of July was always an exciting time for my family, as I was growing up. We celebrated this holiday at the city park, having a picnic with other families, and ending the day with the grand display of fireworks. The show seemed to go on for a very long time, and each explosion in the air was more spectacular than the one before it. The colors were vivid, and the sounds remain in my memory as the sounds of the Fourth of July.<\/p>\n
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It was not until much, much later that I realized just how important this day is to me, and should be for every American. We are a nation of freedom, and we are free to celebrate it all during the year, but especially on the day designated as \u201cIndependence Day,\u201d on the fourth day in July, every year. One symbol of our celebration is fireworks.<\/p>\n
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I remember the first year we lived in Madera. Our house was one of the first houses built on our street, and so much of the block was still dirt. There was nothing but a field behind our house. We could easily see the fairgrounds from our house, so it was a perfect spot to watch the fireworks. That first year it was cold on the Fourth of July. We all had to wear jackets to watch the fireworks. The field behind our house was so dark that the fireworks showed up in a grand way, and it wasn\u2019t until the display was over that we realized many families had parked their cars in the field behind us to watch the fireworks.<\/p>\n
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For the month of July, we decorate our house with American flags and banners throughout the house, enjoying those colors that mean so much to both of us. We love to have folks over for a barbecue.<\/p>\n
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When our nephew was a child, several of us would purchase a bunch of fireworks for him to enjoy. As he got older, he was able to light the fireworks himself and we would sit back and watch his show, which was always held in the street in front of our house. After everyone arrived for the barbecue, he and I would open the fireworks packages and sort them out. I made a list of all the fireworks by name and we numbered them. Each \u201cspectator\u201d would get a list of the fireworks, and would rate them. We\u2019d give each display an A, B, C, D, or F. It was such fun! It became tradition.<\/p>\n
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About twenty-five years ago, during early summer, my husband and I had traveled by car to my family reunion. As we passed through Oklahoma, we stopped at a fireworks store and purchased a few packages. So, on the Fourth of July that year, we brought out our Oklahoma fireworks. Most of them were good, and OK for California use. There were a couple of them, though, that were not legal for us to use. One of them was called the Rattle Snake. I don\u2019t know what possessed me to make a purchase of anything that had the word \u201csnake\u201d in it, and if I knew then what I know now about it, I would not have purchased this one.<\/p>\n
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The Rattle Snake lasted a VERY LONG time. It would occasionally shoot off into the air, made very loud noises, and made a few ground explosions. We were fearful that the City of Madera Police Department would be able to locate us before it was over. Fortunately, we got through it with no injuries, destruction of property, or arrests. It has, however, remained in our fond memories.<\/p>\n
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I look forward to the 4th of July 2026 Fireworks Spectacular that will be held at the Madera District Fairgrounds this year. It promises to be extra special, as we celebrate the 250th birthday of our country. The admission is free, for all to enjoy.<\/p>\n
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Enjoy your holiday, and remember to reflect on just what this holiday means. Freedom is not free, and it did not just happen for us. Appreciate what we have in America. Many countries do not have it.<\/p>\n
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Happy 250th Birthday to America!<\/p>\n
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\u2014 My love to all,<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nancy<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBlessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2014 Psalm 33:12<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Fourth of July was always an exciting time for my family, as I was growing up. We celebrated this holiday at the city park, having a picnic with other families, and ending the day with the grand display of fireworks. The show seemed to go on for a very long time, and each explosion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,18],"tags":[32,41],"class_list":["post-48263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above-the-fold","category-lifestyle","tag-culture","tag-holiday"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48275,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48263\/revisions\/48275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}