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Tuesday, July 08, 2003
To thousands of camped-out Boston July 4th revellers, enjoying the fireworks on the Charles River is all about location, location, location. Who can get the closest to the riverbank, who can get to the front of the Hatch Shell stage for the Boston Pops concert. Show up early, jockey for position, get that blanket down, mark your territory.
Well, thanks to our generous friends Hollis & Steve, we ended up on a boat in the middle of the Charles, front and center to the big old fireworks barge. Closer to the spectacle than almost a million people. No exaggeration ... we were in the bow of the frontmost boat, right up against the "safety" buoys, and we loved every surreal second of it. Even getting pelted with spent firework casings. Yes, we were bombarded by falling bits of charred cardboard... from dime-sized flakes to big honkin' shards...  We thought we'd be out of the wind current, but it didn't stop us from getting our fair share of the debris. Hollis even got one right in the cheek, and she was kinda proud of it. Her very own battle scar. Actually, we stopped laughing when the rescue boats had to take a nearby spectator away to the hospital. Scary stuff if you're not prepared... the incoming shrapnel explains why some of us are wearing sunglasses in the pictures. It's all fun and fireworks until someone gets it... etc... Despite the dodging of projectiles, waiting hours until 10:30pm (have they ever started so late before?), and having to endure some painful Lee Ann Rimes songs, the lightshow was so worth it. Fourth of July fireworks can't possibly get much better than this...
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 neil halstead live in cambridge, ma on november 14th, 2008 previously: joy formidable - boston 2011 recent posts on the 'nac...
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