Not the Hill’s Department Store fireworks show
I was watching Columbus’ Red White and Boom from my house the other night and it got me thinking of the fireworks my family would go to when I was a kid back in Findlay. It was sponsored by the late great Hill’s Department Store. Compared to the professional show at Red White and Boom!, the firework shows of my youth were less impressive.
We would pile into the car and drive out to Hill’s on Tiffin Ave and park in the lot facing east. Where they would shoot the fireworks off is where the Kroger store is now. We had pillows, popcorn, and a cooler with pop and the wait for the show was sooooooo long in my short attention span childhood years.
Then they would shoot off a shell to signal the start. Back then there wasn’t the synchronized music seen in most professional shows today so you had to pay attention.
Then…
WHOOSH…. BANG! – a dud
Wait five minutes…..
WHOOSH…. BANG! – another dud
Wait five minutes….
WHOOSH…. POP! COLOR!
Wait five minutes….
WHOOSH…. BANG! – a dud
And so on…
It was if they had spent the bare minimum with one mortar and maybe 12 shells to fill out a 20 minute show and it seemed more than half were duds. A discount show for a discount retailer… LOL!
My Mom disputes my memory of events and she might be right but I do know those fireworks weren’t any more impressive then when my Uncle bought a car load of illegal fireworks and sent them off on another 4th of July.
