Amerifest 2010 Rose Bowl Fireworks

The Fourth of July. Wow! In with a bang, out with a bunch of over-sugared, loud, but finally-sleeping-in-the-back-of-the-minivan grandkids and their friends. The oldest of the Mudd/Marks quintet, Jeff, invited us to a suite at the Rose Bowl this year for Amerifest 2010. He was attending to a couple of his best new clients, Passion Growers, who are now (thanks to Jeff and Premier Partnerships) recognized as “The Official Rose of the Rose Bowl”.

The Official Rose of the Rose Bowl

It’s amazing that after all these years there WASN’T an official rose. Anyway, here we sit, in a suite overlooking the field of glory where so many college football championships have played out. Except we’re watching 5 of the top Drum Corps International troups do their thing, which I also don’t get. A marching band apparently infested with pseudo-ballerinas swarming around the grass, every once in a while freezing into some sort of pose or design. I couldn’t see any order to it, and I was sitting way up high. I sort of expected to see an Uncle Sam top hat, or a waving American flag, or Betsy Ross. Nada. A lot of noise and mass confusion. Like a train wreck.

A Drum Corps band doing what?

All of this, however, didn’t hold a candle to the discord wrought by youngsters. We had 7 kids sitting in chairs directly in front of a long open window with about a 50 foot fall outside to the crowd below. That made for 4 anxious Moms constantly pulling and warning “Tushies ON the seat!”. Throw in 6 plastic cups of water and a bushel basket of churros, you get the picture.

An impending disaster?

Why is it that the boring pre-show stuff lasts 3 hours and the fireworks only 20 minutes? At least the fireworks were FABULOUS! What a great country where we get to celebrate the biggest birthday of the year by blowing stuff up. It’s not as good as it USED to be, mind you, where they would sit paying customers right in the fallout zone. Kind of like sitting in the front row at the Sea World Orca show, except the spray is on fire. The insurance companies have taken the excitement out of that part of our lives. But it’s still a good show, and the finale still gets my blood pumping. And we all still get stinging eyes and sore throats from the smoke. But WOW! It almost makes you forget that the show, in the middle of summer where the days are already long, starts at sundown and therefore can’t possibly end before about 10. And that’s before you gather up to go. It’s just the beginning of an already long night at that point. So someone tell me: Why does the drive INTO the parking lot enjoy 8 to 10 marked off lanes (5 minutes in) and the drive OUT have only 2 (1 hour)? God bless America.