Boomsday

Every Labor Day weekend here in Knoxville, there is a festival known as Boomsday. I'm not entirely sure how it originated, but 20 years ago, the people of the city of Knoxville thought that it would be a good idea to hold a fireworks show down on the Tennessee River. It's actually quite the deal, if you're brave enough to deal with the excessive traffic. There are vendors and live music all down the river-front all day long, and from about 9:30-10:00, you are treated to the best fireworks display that I've ever seen. The fireworks are shot off from the Henley Street Bridge, which is closed for the entire day to allow for set-up, as well as from the adjacent Baptist hospital, and another bridge a short distance away. The show is set to music that is broadcast over the radio. This year, there were fireworks that exploded in the shapes of cubes, smiley-faces, and stars, they were lit and hanging from the bridge in a type of waterfall, they were shot down in to the river where they then exploded up out of it...basically it was an assault on the eyes and ears for 20 minutes. And it's spectacular. If you're ever in the area by chance during Labor Day weekend, set aside a few hours on Sunday evening, and come see it. Should you come, pick your seat wisely, as being too close to the river might not be all that great. Mandi and I were across the street from the river, and up the hill a little ways, and during the sequence where the fireworks were being shot in to the river, one of the flares that exploded up didn't go quite as high as it probably should have. This resulting in a flaming ball coming down right in the middle of all of the spectators on the street. This particular one happened to land about a foot in front of these two ladies, who managed to jump out of the way right at the last minute. They proceeded to continue backing up after they managed to calm themselves and get back on their feet.

I really wish that I had some funny story related to fireworks, but there's not all that much to draw from. I think I've got two of them, both from a while ago, and given how terrible my memory is, I could just be making it all up for all I know. The Boren's used to live right up the street from us, and we'd be over there frequently visiting, and playing with their kids. Well, at some point we thought it'd be fun to shoot off bottle rockets, so we got a whole bunch of them and some old glass coke bottles and went out to their front yard to fire them off. Well, we started off with them on the ground, but quickly decided that it'd be more fun to hold the bottle so we could aim where they went better. Let's just say that the idea sounded a lot better in principal than in practice, as I think we managed to shoot a number of bottle rockets directly in to their neighbors garage and in to pretty much every tree within 30 feet around their house. It was fun though.

The second one comes from high school, when a group of friends were out during the 4th. We had just grilled out and eaten, and decided that we should shoot fireworks. Now, the city of Oak Ridge has a ban on fireworks within city limits, but since they were out in the outskirts, we figured we may as well shoot them off anyway. So we went down the street a ways, and found a patch of (what we thought was) dirt. So we go and light the fuse on this big box of fireworks (not too much unlike what they've used at camp for the "big show"), and back up and wait for it. Well, they go off alright, but one of them doesn't do as well as it should, and ends up shooting up, spinning over, and going right in to the dry grass that's right next to where we set it up at. Well, there's still a good portion of the box to go, and for all intents and purposes, it looks like the grass is catching on fire. Luckily, it doesn't catch too much, and we put it out once the box emptied. We decided maybe we should hold off on the rest of them. We walk back, and pass a cop on the way. Either it was just sheer coincidence, or someone called us in.

At any rate, you can't ever go wrong with some fireworks entertainment. Just be careful of the neighbors house, or some flammable grass being nearby.