4th of July in our Nation's Park

Since moving to Gardiner, the 4th of July has quickly become my favorite holiday. It seems appropriate to me that, living outside the nation's first park, is the best place to celebrate our nation's birthday. I believe the Fourth of July is Gardiner's holiday--I have always said, "This wanna be dusty ol' cowboy town looks better under a full moon with a couple of stiff drinks than it does in the blazing hot squinty sun." Gardiner is in a hole, that under a full moon is surrounded by silhouettes of a mountain sky line. In Gardiner, watching the fireworks, as you can see fireworks from all angles bursting into the air, the town really is a perfect amphitheater for the event.

From the legality perspective it also seems to be a great location for fireworks as there does not seem to be any rules governing the use of fireworks, even in extreme drought years such as this one. Montana's theme should be "Freedom Rings." Gardiner is not incorporated, mostly because the residents do not want to have any rules and so there are none. That seems to be very Montanan, no rules. This year, there were a few moments that could have been touch and go as a few sparks did start the straw around Gardiner that passes for grasses off. However, maybe because they knew how crazy it was to allow fireworks and they didn't want to have their freedom taken away, it seemed that everyone was extra diligent about watching for sparks and putting them out.

This year I got to witness the firework stand being rolled off the trailer and settled into it's temporary home near the Exxon gas station in town. Watching the event, I was all smiles anticipating the wonderful fire work show that would be given by the natives. I wish I had written down the date the firework stand arrived in town, but I did not. However, I do know it was at least 3 weeks prior to the Fourth. I also remember that one week and two days before the actual holiday, I heard my first firework of the season go off at 5:30 PM when I was walking home from work. They continued going off sporadically that night until it got dark.

I remember my first 4th of July in Gardiner. In those years, Gardiner still had a firework show put on by the Chamber of Commerce in addition to all of the other citizen firework displays that go on. In years previous, ironically enough, the Patriot Act has prohibited the North entrance to Yellowstone National Park from having a firework display. I remember walking around town with my friend Jacqueline doing the normal things you do on the 4th--sweating like mad until the blazing hot sun sets and gives you some reprieve, eating hot dogs, chatting with friends, but what made the biggest impression on me was walking home through the streets of Gardiner after dark and feeling like I was in a war zone. Most of the streets in Gardiner are dirt and everyone had their own mini amateur firework display going on in the street. Additionally there were the people who light off the huge fireworks that light up the sky and those were being lit on the periphery of the town and up in Jardine, the neighboring town 1,000 feet higher in elevation. I remember being so happy to get home without being burnt by fireworks. To describe them as an amateur firework show really does not do justice to the beautiful firework shows put on by the locals. That year I could not believe how long the fireworks went on and actually drove even though I was 3 blocks from the stand (yes, drove not walked so I didn't have to worry about burns) by the firework stand at 2AM to discover it was still open. I deduced it must be the source of all the fireworks that were still going off. I remember going home to bed and realizing what a special town I lived in. No firework displays I had seen in my life had ever come close to what I had seen in this little town. Although I have seen firework displays in the U.P. in South Range that were equally celebratory.

A few years ago, I moved to my current abode. It not only has a good view on normal days--my view out my window is Electric Peak, the bison walk thru my yard in the fall and spring, I can spy on the festivals that take place at Arch park, but on the Fourth of July, my yard offers prime viewing opportunities. It overlooks the school parking lot. The school parking lot is the unofficial designated firework launching site. Since moving to my current location, I have always decided to invite my friends over to enjoy the light shows with me. This year, we all agreed that the fireworks were not as spectacular as usual. Those people at my party that had never experienced Gardiner fireworks, commented that, "it was the best firework display they had seen in Montana." Another guest had just arrived from Italy and was experiencing their first 4th of July celebration in the USA. He had never been to the USA before and he certainly did not seem disappointed at all in the light show. I realized that there was not the usual banter of firework rivalry from different groups across town trying to out do each other. The fireworks were also completely finished by midnight, except for a few sporadic fireworks every once in a long while. I just kept thinking, what does this mean? I reasoned maybe because it was on a school night and with the high fire danger the show was less than usual.

Each year, my excitement for the holiday has increased. I usually try to do something to celebrate what a great country I live in. One year my friend and I hiked up to a beautiful cirque than enjoyed the fireworks that night and over the weekend hiked to in Yellowstone, ending the weekend, by watching Old Faithful go off and eating french fries with lots of ketchup.

Another year, I had raved so much about the celebration in Yellowstone, that my sister was in town for the celebration. That year we hiked through Hayden Valley, the Serengeti of North America, saw beautiful sites, and got poured on while cooling off in Violet springs. The high light of the hike was when my sister thought I was hiking behind her and mooned me, but actually my friend that she had never met before was hiking behind her and got mooned. The bison were in rut and very frisky making loud noises; my sister compared the hike to a hike through a Wisconsin pasture. I guess with all the animals, I could see the similarities and a lot of tourist think they are domesticated! We came back for a birthday party in Jardine where my sister and I jumped on some one's trampoline and then it started to hail. I thought that if we went to a lower elevation, the hail would turn to rain, but it didn't--it got worse. In fact it hailed so much that as luck would have it after I raved about the celebration to my sister, the fireworks were cancelled, my garden was pulverized and mudflows flowed over the road going up to Mammoth trapping people in Mammoth or Gardiner for hours.

Another successful party is over, the friends have gone home and I've feeling thankful for all the good food and nice people I'm surrounded by. This year I'm just contemplating what it means to be an American or a US citizen. Does it mean the same thing? What's the difference between Americans and Canadians?

Gardiner Parade

The Gardiner parade is pretty similar to any small town parade that I have been to in Wisconsin. Basically there are more people on the floats than there are watching the parade. The floats are usually nice but not ostentatious and you almost always know 90% of the people in the parade.

Even though I can see all the floats from my house without even stepping out the door and since the sun did have some claw to it today staying inside my house may have been preferable but I always enjoy going outside and actually watching the parade. Jessi came over and our plan had been to make mojitos (mint muddled with ice and sugar; spiced rum and seltzer over the top) and watch the parade from my lawn. However, we did not have quite enough time to make the drinks so when Jessi spotted out my window the first float heading up the hill towards the Arch, we sprinted outside as if we needed to catch the last ride home from work instead of just catching the the first float (the sheriff's SUV and he was drinking coffee!). Well it took at least another five minutes for the sheriff to actually get to the arch as he was going at a snails pace (duh this is a parade). In the interim, the park Law Enforcement ranger sat in the DARE car (looks like night rider car but doesn't sound as good; has some muffler problems maybe) and motioned tourist to move thru the arch without stopping to take pictures. Surprisingly they complied.

Jessi and I caught 3/4 of the parade in 8 minutes, including the Shriner's being pulled behind an old car that kept dieing on them, Hell's a roaring outfitters on horses with mules behind, the credit union bank ladies dressed in 1900 clothing like women gamblers. We felt like the belles of the ball, as we were the first stop so everyone threw candy at us even though we were obviously past the prime candy receiveing age of 10. Then the K bar float came along, there was a long stall while the circus acts got going and they asked us if we wanted to hop on. Yes we poached a float! Having nothing else to do, we hopped on, were given spiked lemonade, squirt guns and candy to throw. I thought, "what a town!" when you can just hop on a float and are treated to some good southern hospitality. I decided being on a float gives you a license be loud and obnoxious and obviously the center of attention. Half way thru the parade, I started getting hit with candy. I tried not to look to silly and figure out what was going on. This is not usually the way it works, typically, the parade watchers do not pelt you with candy. Eventually, I realized that the NPS Bear Management Float behind us was hitting me with candy. Stacey, the woman throwing candy at me told me that I had a, "I'm going to kick some ass" look on my face until I figured out it was her.

The parade route was as follows: starting at the arch, went three blocks past the historic Robert Reamer buildings, hung a left at the Sinclair, went another 2 blocks, crossed the bridge over the Yellowstone, then proceeded out of town another 3 blocks ending across from the rodeo grounds. Soooo despite the short route, it surprisingly did take about an hour to get from one end of town to the other.

At the end of the route, a man and his wife ran along the floats, handing out bottles of water (we were out of candy but it was a bit opposite for them to give us stuff), even going so far as to run to get more water for our float and bring us more bottles. I felt like a celebrity. I knew who they were and so I expected there must be a message on the bottles, but the rest of the girls did not know what was going on. The people handing out water were the babtist minister and his wife for the local babtist church. We used the water not to quench our thirst but to refill our squirt bottles and spray each other down. At the end of the route, they all noticed the stickers on the water bottles that said "God Bless you." It was rather surreal. Six of us and a dog needed a ride back to the beginning so we all piled in an old tan buick celebrity car and we were given a ride back across town and deposited at the beginning.