The Ouchless Sparkler

Last night, sitting on the beach, waiting in anticipation of seeing the fabulous displays of light in the sky, after spending days building up to this, the moment is almost here for the fireworks. Just then, a vendor holding a handful of glowsticks walks up, one for three dollars or two for five. Both my girls jump up from their chairs begging for a glow stick. I only have four dollars but fortunately our glow stick guy is feeling generous and gives us two for four so both girls are estatic to have their very own glow stick. A red, white and blue swirled glow stick that my three year old quickly discovered how to turn into a "hulahoop". They both twirled it, whirled it, wore it on their head, their arm, their leg and their waist. Finally the start of the big show. Fireworks lit the night. There were singles, doubles, triples and fancy shaped hearts and stars. It was magnificent and I couldn't wait to see their faces light up. Except now all they were interested in were their glow sticks. They continue swirling and waving their glow sticks passionately. I repeatedly pointed out the fireworks, look a blue one, and a red one. Look at that one. They didn't care. They had glow sticks. At night. On the beach. How much better could it get then that?

Of course how awesome is the glow stick. In my day, the glow stick was called a sparkler. It had to be lit with a match and burned a glow of "fire" at the end that we also swirled and twirled and made crazy 8s. Except our old school glow sticks came with actual sparks jumping off the stick which could cause a serious burn. There were different size sparklers. The long 3 foot sparklers were awesome because they lasted longer and had a longer handle so you experienced less sparks landing on your hand. But the sparks were bigger so when they did land on your hand, you definately felt it. There were short ones but they also have about a two inch handle and it was instant sparks on hand. No escaping it. If you had a little sparkler, you had some zingers to contend with. The sparks were smaller so not quite as painful. Good times. I miss those sparklers.

Of course it is nice to be able to sit on the beach and not have to worry about finding a match to light it up and not have to worry about how other people are playing with their sparklers and not have the sting, the price you had to pay to experience magical glowing lines that you create yourself.

Even though my girls did not see all the fireworks, it was enjoyable watching them as having their own fun. The ouchless sparkler. Sometimes technology is good.