Fireworks - L.A. Fourth of July

Okay, the other day was the Fourth of July - - now when I was a kid, the Fourth of July meant going to our local park, having a picnic on a blanket in a park completely filled to the brim with picnickers, then watching fireworks when it got dark. We normally went to Northridge Park, the closest park to our house - but in the 70s my dad started taking us to Granada Hills Park because the festivities included, in addition to the picnic on a blanket and sack races and fireworks, the "Miss Granada Hills" beauty pageant (held outdoors amongst the picnicking families with stage and ramp). We were all for this - and the park got a massive crowd! In those days you rarely saw people setting off their own, practically professional quality (where do people get these?) illegal fireworks, but lately - boy, this year the area where I live in L.A. seemed almost like a war zone with the massive amounts of fireworks, firecrackers, smoke, and boom, boom, kabooms that went late into the night - at least until two in the morning. It makes me a bit nervous, what with all the dry brush around here - from the roof of our house you can see fireworks going in a complete circle around us, we can even see both Dodger stadium and Rose Bowl fireworks when they are having them. This year we went to a barbecue where we sat in relative's steamy backyard covered bar area in 100 degree heat and had your typical fare of hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, coleslaw, baked beans, corn on the cob, beer, wine, ice cream cones, and heavy drinkers - oh boy!

Popcorn Night

I love popcorn, plain and simple. I normally prepare my popcorn simply popped in a little vegetable oil, poured into a big bowl, then lightly salted (or I try to go light on the salt, anyway) - no butter, for health reasons. I recently acquired a red Whirley-Pop popcorn popper and I'm loving it! Makes good popcorn, no burnt or unpopped kernels either - I like that. Now, it came with four packs of "Real Theater Popcorn" (with, quote, "Secret Ingredients Used By Movie Theaters!") which makes the perfect amount of popcorn to fill the popper to the top and tastes just like the yummy buttered popcorn you get at the movies - real good. I sometimes go on a popcorn kick and crave having a big bowl of popcorn every day (usually to eat while I'm watching a movie or show) - I'm on a kick like that right now, thus this blog entry. After several weeks it normally fades away and I sometimes go months without popcorn. Okay, nostalgia time - when I was a kid all those years ago, Wednesday night was popcorn night at our house. My dad would pop up a big bowl, then we would sit on the couch in front of Laugh-In or one of those shows (gee, what *was* on on Wednesday night in the late 60s?) - my sister would sit on one side of him, me on the other - we would each reach our hand into the bowl at the same time so we got the same amount of handfuls of popcorn (yeah, you know how kids are!). Good times!