This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Boom! Crackle! Ooh! Ahh!

Fourth of July 2011; The best ever!

This is the story of.... The BEST FOURTH OF JULY EVER!!!! Please note: These times are approximate.

 

  • 8:20 p.m. - Mom, Dad, Maddy, and I arrive at Community Park and set up chairs and blankets. Grandma & Grandpa are with us.
  • 8:25 p.m. - Mom, Dad, Maddy and I decide to take a walk and see what’s going on. Grandma and Grandpa stay behind to keep our spot.
  • 8:30 p.m. - We find the table where you could enter the raffle titled Right to Light! If you won, you would get to light the show!! Mom and Dad let us get an arms length for $20.00. The winning ticket would be drawn at 8:45 p.m. At the time, there weren’t many tickets in the jar. We had a HUMUNGOUS chance at winning!
  • 8:35 p.m. - Maddy and I get free orange glow-sticks from the fire department and then we play at the park for about two minutes because there were a lot of REALLY little kids there.
  • 8:37 p.m. - I get to pick the jumpy Maddy and I get to go on, but they were closed. So to make up for that, a lady gave us little parachute guys. So we played with those while we listened to the band, Life is Drama. They were pretty good!
  • 8:45 p.m. - The winning ticket was called, and it was...... Maddy and I!!!!! We jumped up and down. We yelled, “Woo-Hoo!!!!” Then we ran up to the stage, and Tammy Kjellesvik, Superintendent of Recreation said, “Congratulations!”
  • 8:46 p.m. - Mom, Dad, Maddy, and I hop in a vehicle to take us to the spot where we would light the show.
  • 8:50 p.m. - We wait for the final checkups to finish, while were eaten alive by mosquitoes.
  • 9:15 p.m. - The show is supposed to start now, but last-minute safety measures were still being taken. Meanwhile, we are still getting eaten alive.
  • 9:20 p.m. - The over-100-year-old Wile E. Coyote TNT pull-up-push-down-then-BOOM!!! box wasn’t wired, so we took a picture then. The man who told us what to do said that you have to pull up then push as fast as possible. So he suggested that we take a picture now. It would turn out better, he said.
  • 9:25 p.m. - Almost ready!!!!
  • 9:27 p.m. - The box was being wired!
  • 9:29 p.m. - “Come on over here, girls! In 5, 4,3, 2, 1! Boom! Sparkle! Crack! OMG!! “Look what you guys did,” my Dad practically yelled excitedly because it was so loud. We were literally underneath the fireworks! It was soooooo exciting!
  • 9:31 p.m. - Back to our seats we speed-walked. Maddy kept saying, “This is one Fourth of July I will NEVER forget!”
  • 9:35 p.m. - The finale begins.
  • 9:37 p.m. - The finale ends and everybody cheered. I am SOOO “Proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me....” Lee Greenwood: Proud to Be an American
  • 9:40 p.m. - We say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa and head to our car.
  • 9:42 p.m. - My family reaches our car and we wait FOREVER to get out of the parking lot.
  • About 9:55 p.m. - We FINALLY get out of the parking lot, but we do not reach Route 6 before 10:10.

This was the best Fourth of July ever! Please come next year. You could win YOUR Right to Light!

Find out what's happening in Channahon-Minookawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Channahon-Minooka