Park and Ooh

I vividly recall watching two fireworks shows from my family's porch every Fourth of July as a child. One was the display at Fair Park, which we could barely make out over the tops of our neighborhood trees, while the other was down the street at Lakewood Country Club, close enough that we could even see the shells hurtling into the sky before they exploded. After catching Evanston, Illinois' lakeside spectacular a few years ago, I realized just how quaint the fireworks displays of my childhood really were, however. Luckily, there are bigger and better displays these days--displays so amazing that the less intelligent among us will even park their trucks on the side of an interstate to watch them. Don’t believe me? Take a drive over to Grand Prairie during Lone Star Park's Lone Stars & Stripes Fireworks Celebration this Friday and Saturday (the fireworks follow the race program, which begins at 5 p.m.; visit lonestarpark.com; general admission is $3 to $5). Or better yet, stick closer to home and marvel at the truck beds full of families leering at the Fair Park Fourth display (which promises to be bigger and better this year) from the tiny shoulder of the Interstate 30 overpass--that way, you can work in some frightened gasps to balance out all the oohs and ahs. The Fair Park Fourth celebration begins at 4:30 p.m. and includes free admission to museums and a performance by the Dallas Wind Symphony. Visit fairpark.org.
Fri., July 3; Sat., July 4, 2009