Have bucket will travel, ready for a festive 4th

After I relocated to McCook to be closer to my daughter, my mother asked me regularly if it was going to work out, if I was really going to stay long-term. I initially responded with the tale of my neighbor welcoming me to McCook with a plate of fresh-baked cookies, seeing it as a sign that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

The response has since grown to include describing the festive spirit of McCook that is abundant during our Fourth of July holiday, an experience that I hadn't enjoyed in any other town since my youthful days in South Dakota.

I was surprised to see a web poll on the Gazette website this week that showed a fairly even three-way split between responders who believed our fireworks laws were too restrictive, just about right, or didn't go far enough. I did get some relief in knowing that if you combined those who felt the laws were too restrictive with those who thought they were about right, it showed essentially 2/3 of respondents in support with 1/3 believing they should be outlawed.

As we all know, you will never get everyone in agreement on any subject, but I still have to think that the approximately 60 respondents who thought fireworks should be outlawed are not those who spend their days chasing after our area youth.

I remember biking the streets with Declan shortly after moving here and thinking how vacant and quiet they were. Nothing like the summer days of my youth, spent building bicycle jumps, sputtering down neighborhood streets with a poker card attached to my dirt bike's yellow "mags" or enamored with some made-up game at the neighborhood park.

When mulling over the empty McCook streets that day, I worried it was a sign of the times, that all our children were now indoors playing video games and talking with their friends across town via an XBox headset.

That worry may not have been misguided, but it was at least quelled a bit after my first Fourth of July in McCook.

Strolling the local streets my first Independence Day eliminated any misgivings I may have had about whether or not I was in the right place. I have to warn anyone intending to replicate a similar stroll that it must be done with your head alertly on a swivel, as it is possible to walk right into the path of someone's fiery celebration.

The small town nostalgia that may be less visible most of the year, comes alive in McCook every Fourth of July. The streets are filled with playful and mischievious youth, glowing with family and celebration, just as I remember they were during my youth.

My ears perked when I heard someone in the news room recently asking if the fire chief would be putting a ban on fireworks this year, due to the unusually low precipitation. I was relieved to hear that his response indicated he had no such intention and that even in low precipitation years the local fires caused by fireworks had been minimal.

I credit responsible citizens with that accomplishment, as well as the year-round efforts of the McCook Fire Department in educating those citizens on fire safety.

I may not be sneaking around the backyard this year, wearing fogged-up protective goggles and attempting to keep a smoldering punk as close to an outstretched bottle rocket as possible without prematurely lighting it, in hopes of rounding a corner and catching my youngest brother Casey by surprise. But whatever my celebration entails, I promise to have a small bucket of water nearby after being informed by the fire department that nearly all firework related fires could have been prevented by just such an item.

After all, at the end of a fire-free evening, I can always sneak up on Casey with my bucket of water and not have to worry about those pesky protective goggles.