Fireworks Over Woodhaven

Saturday, July 4th

The last few years, it had gotten increasingly quiet `round here on the 4th.  Not many folks, it seemed, set off fireworks anymore.  I recall, as a young boy, watching the adults (and some teenagers) setting off fireworks in the streets.  One guy was real cool about it -- he had a garbage can, which was ablaze, and he'd drop a mat of fireworks into it.  What a racket!  The streets were usually a haze of gunpowder. 

And, yes, we understand that it's dangerous -- and little kids tend to blow off appendages, etc.  But, still, those were the days!

Anyway, after it got dark, we drove around to see what we could see but didn't see too much activity.  We drove through the park, but there was nothing going on there that we could see.   But as we hit Woodhaven Boulevard, we saw some activity way in the distance.  BTW, these are video stills, hence the shoddy quality.  But it's good enough that you can see something going on in the distance.  From the positioning, we were guessing somewhere around 101st Avenue.

We circled around -- saw a little activity on 101st, and then stopped off at Dunkin' Donuts on Atlantic and 102nd.  We saw a lot of activity in the distance, towards the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill border.  We grabbed out coffee and donuts, got back in the Project Woodhavenmobile, and went in search of illegal fireworks.

Then we found some folks having fun with firecrackers, and bottle rockets, and some more exotic fare.  Not for nothing, but the last few months -- with nothing but bad news about the economy -- we think that people deserve a good time. 

These folks were great -- celebrating the Independence of our great country.  And they welcomed us with open arms -- thank you so very much, folks.  There were people lighting off stuff a block or two away, but these guys blew them out of the water with something called a "Heavy Bomb" which produced the following spectacular show.  Who needs Macy's?

Anyway, here's the video of our nocturnal tour of Woodhaven in search of spectacular fireworking.  And to the folks responsible for this show, you have our thanks! 

Note:  Please, do not mistake any evil chuckling you heard from the cameraman as evidence that I was enjoying myself :-)

Feel free to share your memories of July Fourth in Woodhaven here!

If you have any comments, or would like to suggest other projects, drop us a line at info@projectwoodhaven.com or projectwoodhaven@aol.com.  

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