So it was already a good day by the time
Lately, if I’ve watched the fireworks at all, it’s been from our house in Malden, several miles away. Prior to that, I’d watched the fireworks once or twice, but from the Cambridge side of the river, and optimizing for comfort and lack of crowds rather than visibility. This time, we were right across the river from the barge the fireworks were launched from, and it was a much different experience. (When C. pointed out the barge, and how huge it was — I’d thought it was just the opposite bank of the river — an image popped into my head of a grizzled old guy with only three fingers on one hand sitting on the front of the barge, smoking a cigarette. :-) From where we were, the fireworks covered an angle of about a hundred degrees in the sky! And the fireworks were spectacular. There was a kind near the beginning that I’d never seen before that just painted the sky almost solid white, spreading out to cover the sky like lichen on a tree. Hard to describe, but very beautiful. And there was lots and lots of blue. And there were some tours-de-force by the fireworks manufacturers in the form of cubes, stars, and smiley faces. (I said that next year, they should shoot off some smiley faces with noseglasses.) It was a delightful experience, and I’m very grateful to
Maybe one of these years I’ll actually make it to First Night, too.