July 4
So this Independence Day, I got a taste of the odd culture around this area. On Saturday, I ventured out to Monticello, and then yesterday I went to most of the celebrations that were here for Champaign County.
Both fireworks were odd in that that people gathered hours before the fireworks started to just sit around and chat. Both had carnival food venders, including something that I have never heard of called lemon shake-ups, which are apparently lemonade with a disgusting amount of sugar. At the Monticello fireworks they were selling these hats with fiber optic tubes coming off of them that were just about the strangest things I've ever seen. The group I was with knew a lot of the people around, so I got to hear stories about how such and such guy slept with a teacher in his senior year and the teacher didn't even lose her tenure. There was a booth set up saying "Are you Getting Into Heaven? Two question will tell you." I'm really curious what the second question is, because I'm pretty sure most Christians just think you need to believe in Jesus. Next to this was a terrible band that was singing contemporary christian songs. The fireworks were kind of blah until the grand finale, which was unbelievable, and then after it was done, there was a guy behind us, pretending to sob and screaming "America! America!" in a choked Southern accent, then his friend picked up going "Budweiser! Cold Budweiser" in the same tone.
The Champaign County celebration, I can't even begin to... okay so it started with the world's longest parade. Thankfully it wasn't like Mount Pleasant where it's mostly companies advertising. There was kraft stuff because there is a kraft plant here, and some politicians, but that was about it. However, there was a tiny little bus representing the mass transit system that had a water cannon on it, a pro-life float, a tea party float, everyone stood up and clapped for the military, the firefighters, and the emts (which i thought was kind of nice), and only one person, in the entire 2 hours, threw candy. It poured intermittently throughout the parade, but it was actually less oppressively hot when it was pouring, so we, and about half of the people, just stood through it.
Then there was the fireworks. They had a 50s and 60s cover band that weren't terrible beforehand, but one of the band members, I swear, barely touched his instrument and instead went through a series of odd hats and masks for the entire two hours. Then, they began the ceremony, which, I was shocked beyond all reason, started with a prayer. I've never heard a prayer at a public event before that was not specifically Christian. They even said Jesus in the prayer. I didn't even know how to react, because, despite the fact that I usually will honor any prayer, from any religion, I don't think public prayer is appropriate. Anyway, it was the best fireworks show I've ever seen. It was 45 minutes long and set to music (some odd choices in there), and had fireworks I've never seen, like ones that split off into twinkling comets, and ones that make smiley faces. They had my favorite ones, these giant gold ones that kind of form streamers that stay for a good 30 seconds, but they improved upon them by having them shimmer and make noise as well. I was thoroughly impressed.
So yeah... central Illinois culture. woo.
Both fireworks were odd in that that people gathered hours before the fireworks started to just sit around and chat. Both had carnival food venders, including something that I have never heard of called lemon shake-ups, which are apparently lemonade with a disgusting amount of sugar. At the Monticello fireworks they were selling these hats with fiber optic tubes coming off of them that were just about the strangest things I've ever seen. The group I was with knew a lot of the people around, so I got to hear stories about how such and such guy slept with a teacher in his senior year and the teacher didn't even lose her tenure. There was a booth set up saying "Are you Getting Into Heaven? Two question will tell you." I'm really curious what the second question is, because I'm pretty sure most Christians just think you need to believe in Jesus. Next to this was a terrible band that was singing contemporary christian songs. The fireworks were kind of blah until the grand finale, which was unbelievable, and then after it was done, there was a guy behind us, pretending to sob and screaming "America! America!" in a choked Southern accent, then his friend picked up going "Budweiser! Cold Budweiser" in the same tone.
The Champaign County celebration, I can't even begin to... okay so it started with the world's longest parade. Thankfully it wasn't like Mount Pleasant where it's mostly companies advertising. There was kraft stuff because there is a kraft plant here, and some politicians, but that was about it. However, there was a tiny little bus representing the mass transit system that had a water cannon on it, a pro-life float, a tea party float, everyone stood up and clapped for the military, the firefighters, and the emts (which i thought was kind of nice), and only one person, in the entire 2 hours, threw candy. It poured intermittently throughout the parade, but it was actually less oppressively hot when it was pouring, so we, and about half of the people, just stood through it.
Then there was the fireworks. They had a 50s and 60s cover band that weren't terrible beforehand, but one of the band members, I swear, barely touched his instrument and instead went through a series of odd hats and masks for the entire two hours. Then, they began the ceremony, which, I was shocked beyond all reason, started with a prayer. I've never heard a prayer at a public event before that was not specifically Christian. They even said Jesus in the prayer. I didn't even know how to react, because, despite the fact that I usually will honor any prayer, from any religion, I don't think public prayer is appropriate. Anyway, it was the best fireworks show I've ever seen. It was 45 minutes long and set to music (some odd choices in there), and had fireworks I've never seen, like ones that split off into twinkling comets, and ones that make smiley faces. They had my favorite ones, these giant gold ones that kind of form streamers that stay for a good 30 seconds, but they improved upon them by having them shimmer and make noise as well. I was thoroughly impressed.
So yeah... central Illinois culture. woo.