Madie Nibley: Ends with a Bang!
I don’t have any tragic tales of sacrifice or loss. My life is not a story of defeat. I don’t have a heart-wrenching story to make you think I deserve the tickets above all the others. However, I do have a well written essay that will hopefully help me gain favor in your eyes. Enjoy.
Every year the end of June brings with it the sound of lawn mowers in the evening, hot mornings and the beginning of the Freedom Festival Celebrations. It kicks off with the Children’s Parade while homemade floats and patriotically decorated bikes fill the street. It includes the Balloon Fest where the sound of rushing, hot air fills these and gracefully carries away competing baskets. There is food and fun at the downtown festival where you can buy anything from a charicature drawing to a Native American hand woven blanket. Let’s not forget the night of the third. The long night where the lawns in front of the street are filled with blankets and people staying up all night to guard their spot for the next morning’s parade. The night is filled with donut runs, card games and fireworks that make it almost impossible to get any shut eye. The next morning we watch as floats carrying royalty, old models of cars transporting people of grave importance, ballons in the shape of cartoon charaters. Marching bands and military men, governers and pooper scoopers all litter the street for two hours as they walk the specific route of University Ave. and then left on Center Street.
From there we leave the parade route and make it home where we host barbeques and watermelon fests. Sometime during the afternoon we hope to squeeze in a short nap to rest us up for the evening becasue the evening is the grand finale of it all; the STADIUM OF FIRE!
I love the Stadium of Fire. I love sitting in the nose bleed section because they’re the cheapest seats. I’m reminded of my grandfather who was a POW for six years in the Vietnam war as the rush of the jets in formation fly over. I love the great entertainment that is selected year after year. I love the respect shown as different military services are performed. I love the feeling of loyalty that connects all of us together for those hours. And of course the night, the week, the celebration ends with a bang, litteraly. The sky is lit up with hundreds of colors and shapes and shapes as the rockets red glare flashes against the velvet sky. If you can’t feel the bang reverberate through your chest then it’s not a Stadium of Fire firework.
I love the idea of the Freedom Festival. I love that we are able to celebrate this wonderful freedom while still remembering the price that was paid as we stand up and have a moment of silence as the flag walks by. I am grateful for America and for all of the blessings and joys I am able to experience in celebration of this holiday.