Happy 4th!

After reading this entry I am brought back to many a 4th of July past. Really it is a lot of sitting on a blanket, watching the fireworks (recently with a beverage in hand) and enjoying some nice weather. This 4th I am actually making the trek to see the ex so he can see the baby (this of course has nothing to do with the last post ;).......and my mind wanders......

Anywhoo, the 4th, yeah.....the most memorable for me was back in the mid 90's when as a family we would come down to Miami to visit the grandparents. This was before I lived here, before I was an official "Hispanic" and when I was very happy living in my happy little white suburb in the north east. So when we went to a major fireworks display downtown with people setting off their own personal fireworks display (soooo illegal in NY) it was a bit of shock. When a group of large Hispanic men set off a fireworks display that almost resulted in my little brother (5 at the time) losing the left side of his body I saw my dad LOSE HIS SHIT!

This is the first and only time I have seen my dad this angry. So angry in fact that his lifetime of garbled Spanish came flooding forward in an angry display of what I now interpret as a basic "What the FUCK! You almost killed my kid"! When these men proceeded to not appologize, puff up and step on our blankets it was the nail in the coffin. With my sister and brother crying, my mom telling my father to calm down we attended our last public Miami festivities that evening.

I chalk it up as another funny story, my mom says it was the evening "where your father lost his mind" and my sister still won't go downtown. My brother is the only one who has no recollection of the events....

Have a safe and happy 4th full of bloggable events!