July 4th

Despite the threat of rain all weekend, Larned Independence Day celebrations went on as planned - well, almost.  Fort Larned had another living history weekend complete with the Olde Time Fort Larned Band, watermelon, and potato sack races.

This guy's giving up after demonstrating one, measly time.

The town of Larned doesn't do anything on the 4th until 8:00pm, when the community gathers to hear the Fort Larned Band and buy treats from some of the local organizations trying to raise funds.  Then they have community fireworks. 

I'm not really sure why Larned puts on a fireworks show myself, as shooting off rockets from your yard is perfectly legal in Kansas.  A massive fireworks shop, sponsored by the local Assembly of God chapter (interesting!), shows up for about a week and people stock up as if there's going to be a nuclear holocaust and fireworks are necessary for your very survival.  Saturday night we watched our neighbor shoot off an amazing light show for about an hour.  It's the closest I've ever been to a fireworks show, and probably as close as I'd like to be, as I'm certain there are now some singed shingles on our roof.

So, Larned, finding it necessary to put on its own show, decided at 8:30pm that the threat of rain was too great, so instead of canceling the fireworks, they started them prematurely.  It turns out, fireworks in front of a dark rain cloud are just as good as fireworks at night.  Luckily, we could see the whole show from our driveway, so never had to brave the rains, mosquitoes, or "crowds" to see them.

Our View

My uncle Tim came to visit from Lincoln, NE Monday, so we went back out to the Fort.  Living history still abounding, we got to see this hot soldier in his dress uniform, crawled into an underground tunnel to view a well, and Tim was brave enough to get locked in the Fort's Sweatbox, which was used to punish soldiers who mouthed off to their superiors on hot days.

Nathan guarding the blockhouse

  Underground Well

Uncle Tim probably wondering if this is really a good idea

I definitely miss the pomp and circumstance of having a 4th of July parade, but I suppose I can't expect that much from a town who has lost 1/4 of its population since the 2000 census.  (We're now down to 3500 people.)  At least no one was injured by a rouge neighborhood firework.  I guess that qualifies as an excellent 4th of July!