Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Fourth of July Memories

This week for Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, he asked everyone to share their favorite memories about Independence Day:

1. Think of the best Fourth of July you remember from your childhood.

2. Think of the best Fourth of July you remember from your adulthood.

3. What will, or did, you do today?

4. Write about one, or all, of them on your blog or in Comments to this post, or on Facebook or Google+.

1.  I'm surprised that I really don't remember any Fourth of July celebrations from when I was a child.  I have some vague recollections of playing with sparklers, but that's it.  I'm pretty sure we used to have firecrackers, but I just don't remember anything beyond that.

2.  Since I can't remember any great Fourth of July stuff from my childhood, I'm going to claim two best days from my adult life.  Both were performances while I was in the USC Marching Band (The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe!).  The best one was in 1986, when we played a concert at the Hollywood Bowl and the conductor was Bill Conti (while Dr. Bartner, the band's real conductor, was with the Liberty Band for the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty).  I remember it was a great concert and working with Conti was fun.

The second best Fourth of July was the year the band played at the Rose Bowl.  I don't remember what year that was, but it pretty much had to be 1985, 1987, or 1988.  Gary Owens was the announcer, but the event is not listed in his IMDB profile (though I think it was televised).  Not only did we give a great performance, but the fireworks weren't the everyday shoot-up-in-the-sky-and-explode-in-a-shower-of-sparks type.  One side of the stadium was blocked off, and fireworks were used to create images.  Probably the best fireworks show I've seen ever.  And I learned that Gary Owens was an egotistical ass.

3.  I have spent most of today working on genealogy.  I helped a friend with the book she's putting together for a big family reunion, I did some research, and then I spent far too many hours on citiations (bleah).  It's overcast this evening in the Oakland area, so I won't be able to see the fireworks being shot off in San Francisco.  And one of my cats is hiding in the back of the house because of the noise of firecrackers outside.

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