Of all the Holidays there is in a year, New Year has always been the time when I reminisce.What better memory to go back to than the memory of a past New Year's Eve party. This is dedicated to my dad, well, to all the dads. We know you try your best, and if sometimes the best just don't cut it, we can always get a good story out of it.
New Year's Eve...
My dad started to work on a contraption since 10AM in the morning of New Year's Eve. He placed it in the middle of the street. It looked like a large frame about 8 feet high and 8 feet wide. In the middle of the frame was a shallow table that ran across the center of the frame. At the foot of the frame where tubes tied to the base. He then placed all the fireworks he bought on this large frame. He nailed the spinning fountains on the top of the frame. He then fastened cylinders of fountain on the shallow table at the center. At the sides of the frame, more spinning fountains were nailed. Baby Rockets were placed on the tubes at the base. A Judas Belt ran around the whole contraption. IT WAS AWESOME!!! This was going to be one well-thought-of spectacular display of Fireworks... or so he thought.
Since it was still early, my dad placed all the fireworks together. He kept telling everyone to leave all the fireworks alone and only he can light them up. That got us more curious and excited.
9:00PM passed and we were getting anxious.
10:00 PM all us kids were coercing my dad to light one.
11:00 PM even my uncles and aunts were in on pressuring my dad to light one spinning fountain.
My dad was one patient man. He wanted to light them at exactly 12 midnight. But 3 hours of wisecracks and pressuring from all of us could break even a saint into converting. So he did break.
At 11:45PM, my dad agreed to light 1 spinning fountain, just to shut us all up. I'll say it again, JUST ONE SPINNING FOUNTAIN. We all gathered around the "invention" and we were all excited. Cameras were ready and everybody crimping their eyes to adjust to the fabulous light show about to happen. He lighted the one on the left side of the frame. THEN THE INEVITABLE HAPPENED...
You see, fire tends to spread fast, especially when there are flammable stuff laying around it. My dad forgot that he placed ALL of the fireworks together and the whole contraption started to light up. One spinning fountain led to lighting the other spinning fountains, then the cylinder fountains started to light up too. It lead to the Baby Rockets being lit up and they were just lying there. So, rockets went flying from all over the place. Windows were broken. Everybody was so afraid that we all ended up running inside our houses. The heat it generated was unbearable. Then the Judas Belt was lit up, this caused the whole thing to fall. The Spinning Fountains fell on the street and flew from the frame. People were screaming and children were crying! It was a whole 15 minutes of fiery horror!
After 15 minutes the whole thing stopped. It became a burning frame of epic failure. As we were going out of our hiding places, the clock stroke 12:00. People from nearby started to greet each other, "HAPPY NEW YEAR!" The sky lighted up with expensive fireworks from nearby communities. All we were left with was this fire we needed to extinguish.
Everybody was guilty of something so nobody was about to say, "I told you so." My uncles started to extinguish the fire. My dad helped. We were all silent then and only the echoes of faraway greetings and distant fireworks were heard. Then, for some reason, we all started laughing. The whole street was filled with the laughter from our place.
My dad's plan was to make that New Year's Eve get together memorable for all of us. It may not have been the best laid plan but I'd debate anyone who would say he didn't succeed. Happy New Year dad!
