This story on my Dad's blog took place in the early 60s. Literally a "Blast from the past"! My Dad narrates:
A crisis for a presidentMike reminded me of a traumatic episode. In the early 1960's I was program chairman for the Marcus Whitman Kiwanis Club of Walla Walla. Part of my duties was to come up with an idea for a fund raiser.Prior to leaving on a vacation I presented some alternatives of packaged shows like Donkey baseball or Globetrotters, etc. I don't remember which was chosen but a vote was taken and action was to begin.When I returned from vacation I found that the format had completely changed. A professional producer had been hired, we had leased Borleske Field for the Fourth of July and we were going to develope our our own patriotic show The KIwanis Old Fashioned Fourth of July Show and Fireworks Display was an overwhelming success...
The stands were designed for 2500. The crowd was estimated at close to four thousand. At dusk skyrockets caused oohs and aahs and beautiful set pieces glowed in patriotic themes.featuring fireworks at the end. Very little expense as all entertainment except the fireworks was to be volunteer..
Next year the Fourth arrived. I was president. Based on the previous years success we scheduled a reprise bigger and better. Fireworks $2200.00...
The show began. The band played. The Lions Club Chorale belted out acapella barber shop favorites. The tumblers did their flips.Dusk arrived and all prepared for the fireworks display. Discreet flashlite beams were seen at the far side of the field as the crew awaited full darkness.A rocket fired arching into the sky and at its apex a loud boom indicating a beginning to the fireworks portion of the show.Then another boom and a series of crackling noises. This was not part of the plan. Someone had thrown a lighted object into one of the boxes of fireworks and a chain reaction caused all of the combustables to ignite over about a two minute span.The crowd was dazed. As president, with great trepidation as to what I would find I charged into the wall of smoke that covered the large football field. As I reached the far side, the crew had counted noses and determined all were accounted for. They were already policing up the mess.I thought I should make some announcement but the crowd was quietly filing out.One of our club members, Dan Reeder, who was helping with fireworks suffered some trauma from schock but fortunatey no one was injured.That was the last Kiwanis Old Fashioned Forth of July Show and Fireworks display.
Walla Walla, as far as I can remember did not see another fireworks show on the 4th for many years afterward.
interesting article: I WAS THERE: WE WERE PART OF THE PROGRAM: what really happened: My dad Ralph Jackson, had been in the fireworks business in past years ('30'40's) and was involved in setting up the displays: There were several people involved in getting the "mortors" buried in the ground and the fireworks set up in order of setting off. In charge was Bob "Red" Lightfoot, also assisting was Gene Criscola, and myself as well as a couple others. Once the program started, several young kids poured out of the grandstand and headed toward us. Gene promptly went over and told them to leave.....Part of his job was to keep the fireworks COVERED UP until told to bring more over. Well once in awhile there will be a "dud" that explodes to early, and showers of sparks fly around, and in this case some got into the "unexploded" works and once ignited, all hell broke loose. My wife was in the stand and very much PG and was concerned on my safety.....I ran like the others, and I remember very well, there was a skyrocket....heading straight at the running Red Lightfoot. One of the funniest sights ever....and yes he did out run the thing. What was surpose to be a 45 to 60 minute fireworks show, went up in less then 10 minutes. Who could ever forget those moments. Intersting also, the same thing happened earlier at the WW Boat Club, and yes Red lightfoot was there as well......had to jump into the water to avoid the exploding fireworks
ReplyDeleteThis show may have happened in 1970? Me & My family were there. This was the first show that we ever saw from the stadium. For the preceding 10 or 15 years, we always sat on the adjoining hillside with hundreds of others. In my biography, I wrote:
ReplyDelete"FIREWORKS!
I suppose our family was like most. As parents, we were always on the lookout to find or discover fun things to do with the kids. Sooner or later, one common experience was going to a Fourth of July fireworks show. In Walla Walla, we were lucky to have the Borleski Stadium. It was situated in a natural bowl - - lots of hillside to lie around on. You could hardly ask for a better vantage point.
We gathered together there many years. Towards our last outing, we were treated to an awesome show. This particular year, we decided to forego the hillside and just go on into the stadium. Finally, the lights were dimmed. Then they fired off a few introductory sky rockets - - then from behind the nearby high row of trees, there was much FLASHING, BOOMING and a lot of SMOKE! This unusual display went on and on for about a minute or so. Then a calm voice eventually came over the loudspeakers, “Would somebody please turn on the lights?” That was it. No further explanations or anything. People finally started drifting out of the area. It was rather obvious that we had just seen the entire fireworks show?
Later we learned that they finally surmised that someone must have thrown a cigarette or a lighted punk over the fence, into the piles of waiting sky rockets. A much-loved novelty shop owner, Dan Reeder had assumed the management of our annual fireworks shows. If I recall correctly, I think he got some rather serious and unpleasant powder burns and possibly some ringing in his ears. I also believe they made some changes in the way that they assembled the waiting fireworks for future shows.
FRANK PHINNEY
fphinney@sbcglobal.net