4th of July Fireworks

Times have changed a bit in terms of the size and scope of the annual Ridgewood 4th of July Fireworks show. The tickets cost $5 in advance and $10 the night of the show, with no refunds. There is also the unmistakable 21st century drama of a security search of your belongings as you enter Vets Field.

Admittedly, the show is bigger than it was in the 1960s and 70s and our society has become much more litigious, consequently the event is much less spontaneous and under a tighter control. I can recall leaving the parents who volunteered to drive the neighborhood kids to Vets and simply roaming around the perimeter of Vets and Graydon with my childhood pals. We simply had a grand old time looking at things out of their usual context, in this case at dusk, and only stopping when we heard the opening rounds of the fireworks presentation. We would then stop whatever we were doing and watch with wide eyed wonder at the explosions of the pyrotechnic devices. When the show was over and the final cries of wonder from the attending crowd had been uttered, we would find our adult supervisors for the ride back home. I have no idea who paid for the show in those days but we all got our money's worth and then some.