Wow, it seems like just last week we were celebrating the winter holidays, and now the calendar reads July. Back then we were uncomfortable with prolonging low temperatures, and the past few weeks we’ve been grumbling about it being too hot and humid, and sometimes even too wet.

We’re tough people to please at times, but there are a few things that we seem to come together to celebrate that maybe need to be celebrated in a more modified fashion, with consideration for other people and even their pets.

Case in point – We have recently celebrated the 249th birthday of this country, and many are already beginning to plan for the landmark 250th celebration of Independence Day 2026. It’s a good bet, some will want to make this upcoming semi-quincentennial, unforgettable with greater pomp and circumstance, surely trying to make a huge bang, both figuratively and literally.

When I was a kid growing up, our parents, as did others, bought a supply of thin, narrow boxes of sparklers we lit and spun around in our backyards after returning home from a fireworks display, maybe at Midway, or at Hills Department Store on Brooklyn Square later on. They were good displays, not very long, but enjoyable. Side note, I was never a huge fan of fireworks as I had a problem with loud, booming noises. I didn’t like going to watch the fireworks, but went anyway. I do attend displays (including what they call Rock-n-Blast once a season) after some games at Progressive Field. I still have a bit of a problem with them, especially the conclusions which still resonate in my ears minutes after they have ended. I went to the displays as a kid, as they were family events, and I did like the colors and creativity of the sky pics, and I was pretty sure they wouldn’t hurt me. They just make/made me uncomfortable. They do, though, remind me of coming home and creating my own designs as I painted the air with my sparklers in the backyard.

As I’m sure you’ve heard, and seen, in neighborhoods in our communities, people have crossed state lines to purchase DIY Fireworks which they can’t wait to try out numerous times before the actual day of the celebration of the birthday of our country, hence the name, Fourth of July.

I’m okay with fireworks displays at other events and holidays, and even in situations where it’s close to the Fourth of July, but our local baseball team is on the road on the fourth, so they schedule their home display on the days closest to the Fourth of July. Unfortunately, the do-it-your-selfers, seem to have enough money to be able to purchase a week’s worth (more ?) of fireworks and attempt to serenade their neighbors with renditions of the 1812 Overture the entire first week of July. I have a lot of problems with the do it yourself displays, but might concede allowing it on one night, if necessary, that being the night associated with the celebration with fireworks, the Fourth of July.

I had thought, maybe I’m wrong, that fireworks that shot into the sky were illegal in Jamestown, as at the point of explosion, they emit remnants that don’t just land on their property (some of them are renters too) but the property of others. Some people have backyard canopies over their deck or outdoor seating areas and those canopies are made of vinyl, which is easily able to have holes burned in them from firework offshoots before they cool. Also, something to think about is the people who set them off in the street, do not clean up the debris left in the street at the point of ignition, further creating, what in some neighborhoods is already kind of messy. (The second part of this last statement is the fault of many homeowners and residents, not just pyrotechnic wannabees.) One more suggestion, if you’re going to shoot off fireworks, legally or not, buy a watch and end your pyroteching when, or before, the big hand is on the 12, and the little hand is on the 10.

For thirteen years, Sally and I had a pet cat, who loved being outdoors, in fact he was a stray who adopted us (according to Sally), but maybe we adopted him, I thought, after seeing a food dish and box with a blanket sitting on our front porch. Anyway, Spook, named by neighborhood kids, was a loyal companion during that time, and allowed us to have one more housemate for a while as the girls were gone and Jon had left for college a year before he adopted us, so there wasn’t so much of an echo in the house with another set of footsteps.

Spook was probably normal as cats go. I wasn’t sure because I’d never, ever, had a pet, but we learned he enjoyed pepperoni, potato chips, baked chicken, canned tuna, among the cat food meals and treats we gave him daily. It made sense though, because he was a feral cat and survived eating out of pizza boxes, and junk food bags and wrappers.

He was a bed hog, almost always jumping up with us at night and finding his place, either at my feet, not allowing me to move as I sometimes do when I sleep, or in-between the two of us, but perpendicular, not parallel, taking up more of our space, making it his space.

In 2014, I had heart stents implanted and during my stay between WCA and Hamot Hospitals, I learned that Spook missed me very much. I inferred that when I got home and was relegated to my recliner and/or my bed for a few days, and Spook never left me the whole time. He’d lay at my feet in my recliner, or assume either of his “bed hog” positions in our bed, but he stayed close to me during my convalescence, watching over me until I was back on my feet.

Why am I telling you all this? Every Fourth of July, and the accompanying days for some, we watched Spook jump every time he heard the boom of a firework. As much as we tried to be close to him and comfort him, we’d feel him shaking and jump a bit whenever one went off. For all the loyalty he gave us, we wanted to make him feel safe, but felt we failed every time a firework made its presence known. This occurred all the way up until we had to say good-bye and let him cross the Rainbow Bridge, not wanting him to suffer any more pain from the cancer that developed in him. The point is that pets are affected by fireworks and shouldn’t have to feel more threatened and afraid than they already have to be, especially every night for a week.

People need to think of who, and what, is around them when they decide to do things. I know people have the freedom to shoot fireworks, if done within the letter of the law, and kept to the day they are/were meant to be shot up, and be done up until (or before) ten o’clock.

The celebration of our Independence happens on the 4th of July, not the 1st through the 7th of July. Let’s try celebrating more safely, and more respectfully of people, their property, pets, street, and neighborhoods too. Remember, Independence Day gives you the freedom to do what you do, again, if within the letters of law, decency, and respect, and others who are being disturbed and bothered by what you are doing, have the freedom of not having it disrupt them and the way they choose to celebrate.

If fireworks commemorate the “Rockets’ Red Glare” of our country’s wars for, and to keep, independence and freedom, and those battles/wars were fought in fields and hills, and you want to really celebrate the day and its meaning, do it like those who fought. Find some open field or hill and fire your rockets there, the way it was done back when.