I have always loved the 4th of July. It's the highlight of summer. There's the 4th, then the 24th, then it's time to get ready to go back to school.
When I was young, there was always a carnival in Provo on the 4th along with the parade and the fireworks. The aunts and uncles and cousins who didn't live here usually came here for the day. Everyone went to the parade, and those who had a dollar to spend could have hours of fun at the carnival. Before I was old enough to get a real job, I picked cherries during June at one of the orchards in Orem. We were mostly finished by the 4th, and I had earned enough money to spend at the carnival and still have some left over for school clothes. That's when rides cost a nickel or a dime, and the very newest, scariest ride cost a whole quarter!
The gambler-training booths were either a nickel or a dime, and I took my turn trying to land my coin on a flat saucer or inside a narrow-necked vase. Of course, I seldom got what I was aiming for, but one time I put my coin into one of those grabber-claw machines and actually picked up a small jewelry box and dropped it into the winner hole! You can imagine how surprised I was! I still have it. It's big enough to hold a pair of earrings and a chain.
There has nearly always been a show followed by fireworks at the BYU stadium. I went to the Stadium Show with my parents once when I was about 4 years old. (That was before I started wearing glasses and I couldn't really see anything, but I didn't know I couldn't see, so ... well, that's another story.) Most years I would watch the fireworks from my backyard with my dad. We lived just a few blocks south of campus, and could see them very well from there.
Many things have changed and many things have stayed the same since then. The carnival rides don't come anymore, nor do the coin-toss booths, but there is still the parade and the show at the much-bigger stadium at BYU followed by fireworks. Traditions evolved as I raised my own children and now have grown-up grandchildren. I personally don't do parades anymore, but many of the next generations do, and the whole available family always gathers to eat pizza and watch the fireworks. My old back yard is long gone, so we meet in the field east of the hospital (along with a few hundred other families). It's like a mini family reunion. We have an hour or two of daylight to visit and just enjoy being together in a park in the cool of the evening after a hot day. The grandkids have a great time running around, playing with glowsticks and lighting sparklers before the fireworks start. I always try to get some photos before it gets too dark. This year I grouped the grandkids who were there by ages. Three of my grandsons (Ryan, age 24, Cory, age 20, and Derrick, age 18) couldn't be there because of other commitments, but here are the others:
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