“Sparklers are the best birthday activity ever,” I said.
“Sparklers are the best any time ever activity ever,” she replied.
It’s not really my birthday – not until July 11, anyway – but we celebrated. Johnson City has its fireworks on July 3, so Tyler and his Canadian friends down the street (Christian et Francis) were free to set off fireworks in the cul-de-sac and land shells on the roof of the woman next door. Our neighbor on the other side is building this house that’s basically the House of Usher, or maybe the house that held the cask of Amontillado, but it’s not complete and probably needs to be taken down a notch anyway, so it would have been preferable for him to aim the other way. But this ultimately failed to detract from our enjoyment of the scene. It even felt okay to celebrate with Canadians – Canadians who are, as Candace pointed out, French Canadians. Christian comes over to our house wearing these really great 80s polos, usually teal with navy trim, and their parents won’t watch them let South Park, so we let a bit slide as far as their participation in patriotic rituals.
My favorite fireworks are sparklers, but I love Roman candles for their name, the idea of having something as prosaic as a candle shooting off sparks into the dark. I think part of the appeal of the whole ritual is the element of danger. Like we’ve tamed something.
I’m leaving tomorrow and I keep wondering about the things that exist or not in Korea: bathtubs, pet dogs, sparklers. They don’t have deodorant and they don’t have ovens, so I don’t really know what to expect from these people.
PS: I tricked out my Holga the other day. Not that anything can really improve that fine piece of molded plastic. I actually really wish I could keep it as a 120 camera – the first, and only, roll of successful film I’ve taken with it was 120 – but I can’t get prints made in Johnson City or any other city in the Tri-Cities Area (wag of the finger! – especially since Kingsport HAS A KODAK FACTORY). So basically I’m sort of guessing that the 120 negatives that I have are as awesome-looking as I think, from being held up to the light. I took the mod-ed camera to Asheville and took pictures of Langford but then the back came off and exposed them all, I think. The guy at CVS was like, “Wow, that looks like a really nice camera,” and he wasn’t even joking. Then I opened the camera and the sponges fell out.
Langford is so lovely, but there will be other picture taking opportunities.
Intrepid Girl Reporter 
