If this blog was about my neighbors, and I was tasked with telling you when their firework celebrations were to occur, I would fail miserably. There are myriad reasons why I would be unable to tell you when the displays were to occur, mostly because they occur without ceasing. And when they cease, it’s only because they’re reloading. I imagine them through those buffering woods, sitting on lawn chairs, rooting for the next explosion as if their very lives depended on it. Sometimes, a cease fire. A few days without nighttime percussion. Then, once it seems that they’ve moved past this primal need for loud noises, they’re back. Three nights straight, bing, bang, boom. Often they wait until I’m nearly asleep and then they light the fuse. This is why I can’t tell you about their schedule, but I can tell you about the fireworks schedule around the lake this weekend.
This weekend, you’ll find the firework celebrations Sunday night at the Lake Geneva Country Club and the Grand Geneva. Assume these will both light around 9:30 pm. Although if you’re on a boat with restless children and you can’t wait to get back to the pier, expect the first bang closer to, or just after, 10 pm. After dusk on Monday the Fourth you’ll have the Fontana fireworks and Geneva National setting their showy bombs. The Fontana fireworks have been rather timid the last few years. Williams Bay is starting to catch up in quality, and Fontana should find that embarrassing. If I were in charge of fireworks I’d take a boring 20 minute display and crank it down to a no-holds-barred six minute free for all. So many explosions that even my neighbors would be impressed. But alas, I am not in charge of the fireworks just as I’m not in charge of closing the boat launches, so things will have to remain as-is for a while.
There are some other fireworks in other nearby towns over the weekend, but I’m not concerned about those. Sunday night the Lake Geneva Country Club and Monday night Fontana. Nothing else matters. And if you’re driving by my house after dark, odds are you’ll find some fireworks above my neighbor’s house. While I like to remind everyone that Memorial Day is not a celebration of any sort, Independence Day most certainly is. For all of our faults and all of the destructive forces at work in this country of ours, it’s still the best place on earth and we should spend more time celebrating it and less time tearing it down. Be safe this weekend. Stay off the lake in the middle of the day. Don’t pull your kids on skis or tubes unless it’s at 7 am. And for crying out loud leave your cigarette boat in Miami.