Well last night I occupied my house because there was no way in hell I was going to leave it unguarded on July 4th. Neighbors lighting off fireworks on the sidewalk is a given, I just wanted to be there to ask that the ‘fun’ not extend to in front of my house. And unlike years before the people actually living here did limit their lightings to their own fronts and rear yards. Those people on the corner shooting off the big display, I don’t know where they came from.
My block, well one corner of my block, was the site of one of the many, many, many neighborhood fireworks shows, that was best appreciated from someone else’s roofdeck. From the ground it looked and sounded like the city was under seige. Loud booms, far off bursts of light, two ghetto birds (helicopters) whirling all over the place, traffic on Florida tied up (really where are you people going?), kids gone crazy, chaos. However, up 3 floors, with a clear line of sight to the National Mall, all of NE, and northwest NW it was a pretty entertaining show punctuated by the flashing of police lights on the ground highlighting the smoke. Police weren’t stopping the fireworks, they were stopping drivers, hands against the car, whole show.
The official show on the Mall was nice, but you guys in Capitol Hill, y’all were impressive and very illegal looking. We saw fireworks shooting up high from Foggy Bottom, Columbia Heights, Georgetown (maybe), Brookland, Trinidad, SW or SE, and North Capitol. But Capitol Hill takes the cake, almost nonstop fireworks action from the east. There was a brief period when Foggy Bottom shot off a impressive light show with shooting stars and ladyfingers.
Locally, there was the exploding extravaganza on my block and some others I think I can pinpoint around Shaw. It looked like there were fireworks going off near the fire station on New Jersey Ave and Dunbar High School. Someone else in the viewing party guessed NY and North Capitol as well as something around U Street.
We broke it up around 10:30PM, but the fireworks kept going on until July 5th sometime after midnight. From my 2nd floor bedroom window I could see fireworks still going off. Instead of watching, I decided to soak in the tub and have a glass of wine. The AC units in my house are so loud (and the walls well insulated) that the fireworks were just background noise. I fell asleep sometime around 12:30AM.
Lesson of the day, have friends with roof decks.