My Fourth of July Celebration

Time for fireworks!

Okay, it was actually the third but anyways…

Erin and one of her friends (Bobby?) were supposed to head off to Coveleski Stadium in South Bend to watch the Silverhawks game and I was invited to go along. Every year following the game, the city sets off their fireworks. Her friend didn’t hook up with us so we decided to go by ourselves.

When I went to her house, she came out with some money that she brought back from Europe. I had forgotten that I had asked her to do that. I like to collect foreign currency. My collection has just started and it consists mostly of Philippine and Iraqi currency. My sister managed to snag a few coins but not much. From Erin I got some Swiss Francs, a 2€, and a £1 piece. If there is anyone out there in the world that wants to trade currency, email me! I’ll exchange you for full value plus more.

It was early in the evening, so we had time to go to a cook out at one of Erin’s co-workers. There were about 10 of us in total and I was the odd person out. But they were very hospitable and I enjoyed listening to some of the stories that were traded around. When the time came, we headed out for South Bend. On the way there, things got more relaxed and for the first time since February, I was feeling on top of the world.

I’ve never been to The Cove before and the stadium wasn’t what I imagined. Thankfully, the ticket prices were lower than I anticipated as well! $4 got us into the grass area. I really didn’t pay attention to the game. Mostly, Erin and I were just there for the fireworks. Not that I didn’t watch the game or anything… I just didn’t keep scores and other stats. Too much work, I just wanted to enjoy it.

Being the ass that I am, I swear if they had played “My Country Tis of Thee” during the seventh inning stretch, I would have sung out “God Save the Queen” (which uses the same music) just for the irony. Instead we got “God Bless America.” The whole stadium stood up, faced the flag, and a few people plus the teams and officials held their hands over their hearts. Umm, “God Bless America” isn’t our national anthem and I refused to pretend that it was. So standing was about the limit of my participation. Well, except for me singing some of it.

During the game, there were three fights in which the players rushed the field. Each time, Erin and I would just look at each other. That “Are you fucking kidding me,” kind. This wasn’t baseball game, it was almost a hockey game. The last time it happened, it was near the end of the game anyways and for a moment, we thought that the game had been called. Soon the boos turned into chants of “Let’s play baseball!” Eventually the game was back on and soon the Silverhawks won it.

When everything was done, they opened the field up so that people could watch the fireworks. Now the fireworks are lit just outside The Cove. I’ve never been so close to fireworks of this magnitude before. It was quite an experience to have explosions happening directly over your head. I had to hope that one didn’t go off prematurely; otherwise I would have been fried. During the finale, there were so many going off so quickly that my eyes couldn’t keep up. That doesn’t happen in the local towns. Usually, there is only one shot at a time. Fump, 1..2..3 Boom.. 4...5, Fump 1..2..3 Boom. Like that. Although we couldn’t enjoy each individual rocket that went off, it was still great.

We probably would have went out for drink but we didn’t. Maybe some other time!