Minette

FLARE NIGHT

Sunday, 4. January 2009, 02:46:38

When I was a kid flare night really was something special on Lake Sunapee.
Back then the time to light the flares was written in stone, people didn’t make their own rules to suit their own schedules.
We kids got to stay up late for the special show that we viewed either from our dock or, on luckier years, from someone’s boat as we cruised around the lake slowly, enjoying.
There was something so special about that night. It was every bit as good as the fireworks on the 4th of July which would occur shortly afterwards, sometimes the very next night.
Where we lived we were across a short stretch of the lake on the left but on the right we looked across the widest part of the lake so we had an excellent view.
All those flares burning red in the dark night, the sounds of laughter carrying across the water gave an air of fantasy to the night for everyone but especially for children.
We lit the flares at 10:00 PM sharp. Nobody back then ever dreamed of lighting them off earlier.
There was specialness in the uniformity of that, something you can’t experience today on flare night at the lake.
These days people light the flares anywhere from 7:30 on so all you see when you look are a few here and a few there.
The magical sight of a shore lined with burning flares is lost on today’s kids and I feel bad for them because now that night is nothing special but just a reminder that the fireworks will happen before too long.
Families no longer come out and stand on their or their neighbor’s docks, enjoying a special moment, talking quietly while their children gaze in wonder at something really special and different.
Now flare night the way it was is nothing but a memory and maybe, sometimes, another story of how life used to be.

LONG DAYANDRE'S

Comments

AllThatGlitters # 9. January 2009, 07:58

Sometimes, the memories we have are better preserved in our mind when we don't revisit the places where they were created. Somehow seeing the places again, even if we could do it the same way, just aren't the same.

minette061554 # 9. January 2009, 16:27

Oh do I know that. But I lived there right through 2005 so I spent my life watching something really special turn into something so-so because people decided to fit it into their own agendas instead of respecting the way it had always been done. I spend a lot of time over there but since we sold that house I haven't bothered with flare night...