Blow up no more stuff!! Enuf said, in a huff. Or not:
(And while we’re at it, in different departments on this web site, I’d Venture a guess that there’s still a best buy to be had, with great service, at a nice local fireworks shop; and for those public servants who hit Kwik Trip and make sure no one bends the rules too far, not only a doughnut day but also National Smoothie Day. Yeah!)
— A longtime fireworks store between Houlton and Somerset will close its doors Forever, (pardon me, as that’s the name of one of their main competitors), and they are currently having a “fire sale” of sorts to get rid of their last inventory. The owner said the strategy has been so successful that all items will probably be gone before the Fourth even arrives. Going out with guns ablazing. And would he reopen somewhere else, like the Big Box stores do to try to build an empire of sorts? No way, he said, as he’s been around this game with his store for 40 years now and this (now former) job can burn you out.
— There has been scant little progress to move ahead with getting that tiny shack, or what’s left of it, basically a basement that’s mostly dirt, completely torn down. The project has bogged down in the past few weeks, which is interesting because we are coming up on a holiday that could conceivably — and jokingly — fix the problem. Across the street, when years ago I did a photo feature for the local paper on the option of setting off in-your-yard fireworks displays rather than taking in the downtown shootfest and its troubles with parking and getting a seat, a centerpiece was a shot. Again, it was across the street — of an amped up sparkler system in someone’s driveway. Maybe turn the nozzle, if it has one and it works that way, 90 degrees, have it point directly southward and torch what’s left of the eyesore? Doubt it would get anywhere near the insurance deductible. Maybe that is the same with the thick haze (none of it purple, except for Deep Purple, see below) across Second Street, we assume from potent off-shoots, that made traffic slow almost a week before The Big Thing. We think the same thing could occur in the old-tree woods south of Hudson Hospital, where there always seems to be some very bright and large-scale shoot-offs, the best the law will allow for fireworks. And infant care is available only a few hundreds yards away. Come On Baby Light My Fire.
— Every fireworks Fourth when the city of Hudson shoots off from Lakeview Park, the St. Croix River is filled with hundreds of boats on the sides of both states, to view our local version of Smoke On The Water. Do any of them make it over to the Bungalow Inn in Lakeland afterwards — as there’s karaoke virtually every weekend but shooting off fireworks in Minnesota is very dicey from a legal standpoint — or do they stay in Hudson? “We get a smattering of people. But after the fireworks they all go back home to light things off,” said a longtime server at The Bungalow.
— If you missed mother’s day and father’s day to get your game on with them, here’s a suggestion to make it up to them, as everyone loves fireworks, even though mom would require that you pull out all the stops to make sure they are legal. For every major (or not so major) holiday, Greyhound busline has deep specials to enable you to go see the folks and bring them something fun as a hostess gift, more so then the proverbial cheesecake, even if you are the King of Lo-Cash, (see the Picks of the Week Department for another take on that musician). AND NOW THE DISCLAIMER: HudsonWiNightlife makes no representations, whether stated, implied, run past all of the glut of local attorneys, hinted at, alluded to, or made teasing fun with, about what items you can and can’t take on a bus. Check that out yourself, and we hope its not as confusing as all the legalities of what you can possess, shoot off, transfer over the bridge in your ever-popular-riding-purpose Segue, carry in your pocket, tuck behind your ear, buy an extra big purse for, etc., concerning the different rules for fireworks in each of the Border Battle states. Can Iowa take advantage of this?
— Lastly, before the 75th anniversary of D-Day becomes the 76th and gets far less attention, then wait around for the huge blowout of remembrance that will certainly happen at the century mark, a local man who hangs out at Dick’s and can’t be more than in his early 30s has his own D-Day experience, this being in 2003 and meaning that this is a 16th anniversary. He was part of an elite sniper team that took out not the likes of bin Laden, but someone almost as dangerous, but only after needing to wait for the right time and being camped out for days in snowy below zero temperatures. Guess that wasn’t Iran or Iraq.The pedestrian walkways in front of the Smilin’ Moose have been painted with two bright White Stripes. Prior to this, with the fact that people of all ages just wander into the street and hope drivers will stop, you needed to be a Great White Shark, or Great White Band, to be seen. This counters the fact that some stupid people venturing across at night are wearing all black, the later the night the darker the color tone.