I was counting up the years yesterday and remembering the most memorable 4th of Julys I’ve had to date. Growing up the 4th meant trips to the beach with fires on the sand and fireworks over the water. The beach would look like a landing zone with fires and fireworks up and down the place. Truly an impressive sight. Since I have been old enough to pay for my own fireworks a little of the fun as gone out of the holiday.
Of the last 6 years of working in the oil field I have been home for exactly one 4th of July. That was the first year I was married and was on my honeymoon. The next year I was in Anthony Kansas. Anthony Kansas is a very small town with very little going for it. It does have a bar. In this bar is a wood bar top that has a bunch of deep groves and chunks missing. The legion goes that Carry A. Nation rode into town with her horse and buggy and started smashing up the bar with her hatchet! Right there in small town Kansas. That fourth we celebrated by blowing up a few fireworks down the dirt road from the rig and BBQed stakes.
The next year I was in Houston for training. Houston was so hot and dry that there were no fireworks to be had. We had an ‘Merica pool party complete with lots of snacks, sunhats and a tailgate BBQ. Not a bad party then either. That was the farthest south I have been for the 4th. The next year was the year I spent the farthest north! That year I was at the top of the world at a manmade island in the Buford Sea called Spy Island. NO fireworks at all that year but they did feed us pretty good bacon wrapped filet mignon. The food had to be the highlight that year because we were so far north the sun never set that day. Never got dark enough for firework. In Alaska the 4th always takes a back seat to the solstice. That’s when the whole state really lets loose to have a summer party.
The next year I was working at Mount St. Helens and that had its own kind of fireworks. Last year was on a rig outside Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This year I am in the middle of the continent on a rig that they have promised to shut down for a few hours so we can all enjoy the BBQ. It’s practically unheard of to shut a rig down so I will believe it when we see it but the BBQ smells great already! Few fireworks but between the flare and the lighting we will still light up the sky!
