An Old-Fashioned Fourth of July I Remember

As you're enjoying your day off (hopefully) today, I'll bet you have memories of old-fashioned fourth of July's from when you were a kid. I know I do! We all come from different backgrounds and are different ages, but I have some memories I'd like to share with you when I was a kid growing up in Utica way back when.

My family's fourth of July usually included:

1. A family picnic at Sylvan Beach (we crammed uncles, aunts, cousins and more into that car).

2. Eating watermelon and corn on the cobb  for the first time of the season.

3. Heading home from the beach and off to the Utica Parkway for a band concert (often MC'd by the late Ralph Allinger, a legendary local broadcaster from our sister station, WIBX).

4. Sitting in the car while everyone kept blowing their horns at the parkway hill for the fireworks* to start (even though it was still light out at 8:30 p.m.)

* Today, the Utica Fireworks are held at Proctor Park.

5. Listening to my father boiling over behind the wheel of the car, trying to get out of the mess of post-fireworks traffic.

6. Going home and asking my parents if we could light up the sparklers.

7. Asking my parents, now what do we do (and havning them answer, "Haven't you done enough  for one day?)