Red, White & BOOM! in downtown Columbus

Some members of my family and I went down to see Red, White & Boom! in person last night. The event was celebrating its 30th year. I hadn’t been down there since year 2 & 3. Since then, I’ve watched it on TV. I must say there is nothing like seeing AND hearing it in person.  The reverberations that impact your body are simply awesome.

Some people stake out their “ideal” space early in the day. We didn’t leave to go there until 6:30 pm which at that time of night, we expected to be stuck in traffic. However, my daughter decided to take High St all the way down from southern Delaware County and surprisingly it proved to be a good way to go. My granddaughters, who live in a small rural town, were treated to some of the more “colorful” parts of Columbus between OSU and downtown. At one stop light, a unique odor infiltrated the car. (I was glad to learn they didn’t know what it was.) Needless to say the people’s actions and manner of dress were different than found in their town.

My daughter had purchased space in one of the parking lots, which can be done online. We were just north of the arena district, so it was very handy. As we walked closer to the final event, we were treated to LOTS of good smelling food vendors and various bands. I tried taking videos of the bands on my Blackberry, but the sound volume proved too much for the little microphone.

It took awhile but we finally found a place to sit. I took some video with my Nikon CoolPix, but you have to overlook the street lamp and the vendor tent. The prettiest display is about 4 minutes into the display. It seemed to be the crowd favorite, even moreso than the finale.

As an aside, I was disappointed at the number of people who didn’t stand for the National Anthem. Shame on those people. Need to beef-up the patriotism.