On the 4th

When you are a 5-and-a-half-year-old boy, explosives are part of your everyday imaginative play.

You know how to make great spittle-flinging sound effects for bombs, grenades and clashing light-sabers. No one has to teach you how to do this. You just know. (Although, it helps to glean tips from a wise older brother.)

And when Independence Day in the good ol' USA rolls around, you start to see shacks appear where they sell real explosives ... that you can buy!

So you ask to stop. Your mom lets you pick out some of your favorites. You spend several minutes inspecting all of the packages, reading the names. You select your 10 favorites and start imagining the extravaganza in your mind.

The pop-its are fun, the snakes and smoke balls or neat, but you know you've saved the real pageantry for after dark.

You wait. And wait.

Finally, come dusk, your uncle and your dad set up the packaged cylinders and cones in the street and start to light them. It's everything you hoped it would be.

Sparks, whistles, pops and crackles.

You don't even notice that the "Blue Ice" and "Emerald Green" sparkle fountains you so deliberately selected for their colors end up looking exactly alike as they sprinkle onto the pavement.

All you see is your very own ka-boom fest, and to you, it's perfect.