Fireworks a source of inspiration and hope
The annual Canada Day fireworks display here on the river is something I’ve looked forward to all my life. I can remember my first Fireworks Night and the excitement leading up to the event when I was a young lad. Finding a spot in the parking lot at the old Hillcrest building, or in more recent years down by the water at Ritchie Wharf or Waterford Green, and watching the magnificent red, blue and green man-made meteors burning their way through the heavens over the most beautiful river on the planet isn’t something you soon forget when you’re a young lad.
Over the years, as my friends and I grew older, Fireworks Night became an important social event for us, a night we gathered together in happy excitement as we waited for the display.
As we grew older still, some of these friends had families of their own and brought their own young lads out to enjoy what had become for us a life-long tradition, something passed down to us from the older generation, something we always had in the back of our minds to pass down to the next generation coming after us.
You may not have seen some of these people since the last Fireworks Night, but you could bet your bottom dollar you’d bump into an old friend or two the night the heavens were on fire over the Miramichi River.
But not this year.
The city, in all its wisdom decided not to pay for the event.
I think that was a big mistake.
Yeah, this city is in some pretty bad trouble. We’ve gone through a lot of grief in the last while.
But like editor Nick Stephens said in the Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down section of the Wednesday Leader, the city missed a good chance to come together in a dark time.
“Certainly $25,000 in fireworks under the present circumstances would be irresponsible, but surely a decent little display could have been arranged for considerably less. The city lost a great opportunity to bond in a time of need by not having any display at all,” Nick wrote.
You all got that right, Nick. And he’s not the only one thinking that.
You wouldn’t have to walk too far in any direction to find a couple of thousand others who feel the same way.
Just because some things are bad right now, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take time to celebrate the good things. In fact these are the times we need to have a bit of fun. People need a bit of inspiration once in a while, and there are few sights more inspiring than 10,000 or so Miramichiers gathered together to look at fire in the heavens, to show that we can push back the darkness when we want to, and maybe, just maybe, find in these sparkling lights the hope we need to go on.
Over the years, as my friends and I grew older, Fireworks Night became an important social event for us, a night we gathered together in happy excitement as we waited for the display.
As we grew older still, some of these friends had families of their own and brought their own young lads out to enjoy what had become for us a life-long tradition, something passed down to us from the older generation, something we always had in the back of our minds to pass down to the next generation coming after us.
You may not have seen some of these people since the last Fireworks Night, but you could bet your bottom dollar you’d bump into an old friend or two the night the heavens were on fire over the Miramichi River.
But not this year.
The city, in all its wisdom decided not to pay for the event.
I think that was a big mistake.
Yeah, this city is in some pretty bad trouble. We’ve gone through a lot of grief in the last while.
But like editor Nick Stephens said in the Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down section of the Wednesday Leader, the city missed a good chance to come together in a dark time.
“Certainly $25,000 in fireworks under the present circumstances would be irresponsible, but surely a decent little display could have been arranged for considerably less. The city lost a great opportunity to bond in a time of need by not having any display at all,” Nick wrote.
You all got that right, Nick. And he’s not the only one thinking that.
You wouldn’t have to walk too far in any direction to find a couple of thousand others who feel the same way.
Just because some things are bad right now, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take time to celebrate the good things. In fact these are the times we need to have a bit of fun. People need a bit of inspiration once in a while, and there are few sights more inspiring than 10,000 or so Miramichiers gathered together to look at fire in the heavens, to show that we can push back the darkness when we want to, and maybe, just maybe, find in these sparkling lights the hope we need to go on.
posted by Street Wise Guy | 6:04 PM
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