One Fourth of July Day

Nov 27, 2006

This goes back to a hot Fourth of July night where I remember when my cousins came home from their first China/Hong Kong trip. At that time we were only about nine or ten, so the horrible stories about the giant flying cockroaches and how all the rural roads were filled with cow dong were simple distractions to what was the real excitement outside. You see, my cousins and I were always big fans of things that went boom, especially to Eddie. As you see, Eddie, at a very young age, had a fascination with how and why things worked – especially with electronics, but that’s another story.

Anyhow, with all the commotion outside, the only thing that I can remember was that my cousins happen to bring home one case of bottle rockets straight from the mother-land. That’s right, one hundred beautiful little flying missiles that you can launch up to the air, up the alley, to the next door neighbors, up the pipes, you name it and it went Ka-Boom. Tonight was going to be mayhem, in our own personal celebration sort of way. We each lid an incense and went straight outside to the front porch. We placed the package on the steps and started to strip the fine plastic packaging, and with each precious piece we lay it down individually. I helped as much as I possibility could, hoping that I would atleast get a chance to light whatever piece they would throw my way – well, they did me one better, they cut me more than a generous share. We each took our turns to walked to our perfectly placed tin-can launching platforms and unleash the fury of each rocket for our own delight.

After about twenty or so, we launch another into the air, but this time we didn’t hear the trademark boom, this time there was a little glowing light that was in the background. Was this an imagination or a simple error of the eye? No, this was the doing of the rich kid that live across the street from our house. I guess he decided to take part of the celebration of our great nation with some tribute of his own. He had lid fireworks that would make children stand motionless with awe. Some had lights, some had whistles, some had lights and whistles, and some went ka-boom multiple times. With each flick of his lighter, he showed us that he was better than us, richer than us, and in some way, our fireworks were not even good enough to be on the same block as him. So we did what we had to do – we looked at each other and started to light our own fireworks again and simply appreciated the extra show in the back ground.

I learned a lot that day – simply, there will always be a time where someone will be better than you, but when you look at yourself and your surroundings and appreciate it for what is worth, you should be contempt. That night, we might not have the better stuff, but I can tell you that we had something better than all the fireworks in the world – we had each other for company.

This goes to my cousin Eddie – I know that you are always in my company.