Glorious Night

Living in a resort area does have its rewards.
But not what you think.

MV Times

During the summer we get, not one, not two,  but three sets of awesome fireworks here on the Island.
Starting off - fireworks for Summer Solstice.
Next up - July 4th fireworks over Edgartown Harbor - which sometimes get fogged out.
And last night.
The Big Kahuna.
The Oak Bluffs Fireman's Association Fireworks.

By Jenn Wiggins

All summer long you see the fire guys out on the corner of Circuit and New York Ave., most summer weekends, taking in donations and selling t-shirts to fund the end-of-the-season explosive extravaganza.
It's hot. It's humid.
But there they are, with one cause in mind - the OB Fireworks.

And lest you think these are some small time pop-offs, think again.

This tiny organization puts on one of the best displays of fireworks in the region!
I would compare their show to a JackAss episode, but not for the reasons you think.
It's professional, it's colorful, it's loud and it's CLOSE with a Capitol C.
Staged slightly (and when I say slightly I mean SLIGHTLY) offshore opposite Ocean Park, with its Victorian Bandstand, old-fashioned boat pond and a lush, green acreage surrounded by Old School, Big-A** summer houses of the old-time rich and famous.

If you sit at the front edge of the park abutting the beach road and the Steamship docks, you are in what we like to call the "fallout" zone.
As in watch-out-you'll-get-your-freakin'-clothes-ignited-with-ash zone.
This gets filled in first lol.

As the show unfolds, it's everything you expect in a local fireworks show.
It's got pyrotechnic stars, ground salutes, waterfalls, even a drunkin' man toddling and weaving his way across the firey ground.

But wait! There's more!
Huge roman candles!
Peonies! Chrysanthemums! Dalhias! And all the colors of the combustible garden of fireworks.
They have Willows.  Yes, those spherical breaks of colors that turn silver-white and trail like a weeping willow tree. The kind you go "Ahhhhhhhh" to.

And they have Kamuros. As I live and breathe. You may not recognize its formal Japanese name - meaning "boy's haircut."  This is not your brother's buzz-cut by any stretch of the imagination. You can recognize it by its dense burst of a glittery gold or silver ball, stars leaving a ponderously heavy trail of glitter behind as they fall.

And those SPIDERS! The "OOOOOOOO" factor!

by Charles Kernick/MVTimes

Anyway, last night was the fireworks. And they did not disappoint.


The ground rumbled.
The skies lightened.
The crowd oooooh'd.
The mortars boomed.

At last! A chance to hold summer before you, until it reaches a fever pitch of light and sound, and heavy clouds of gunpowder and sulphur hanging in the air a minute longer... then the echoing to silence the only thing you hear.

 And...the crowd erupts in hooting and hollering.
And the horns honk their approval along the beach road.

Have a good one. :)