2009 Boston Pops Fireworks
by Fran Gardino
This page harks back to my childhood days living on Tileston Street in "the village" section of Everett MA, up the street from the city dump. Every year on the 4th of July they would shoot the fireworks in the dump in a spot that would be visible from our kitchen windows. All of our relatives would bring their refreshments and food and watch them from the coziness of our 2nd story flat. The fact that we were on the wrong side of the tracks did not matter since the alernative was to fight the crowds down in Sacramone Park and worry about being hit and hurt by exploding firecrackers. Of course we had a lot of fun the next day too, looking for unexploded duds that we could light and step on to get the same loud pop that occurred on a good firecracker.
For the most part, summer was a great time to live up the street from the dump since in addition to the fireworks, we could explore and rummage through the piles of junk for weeks on end. It was not always fun however when we tried floating down the Malden River on a rickety skid wood raft (from Sexton Can, a local tin can factory) and it quickly sunk before we left the polluted river bank. We got drenched in the stinky water! No fish in there; only a lot of old shoes, tires and boots. Not good for people. I guess it really was a good place for the city to shoot off fireworks.
The Endwww.frangardino.com