Call me old-fashioned, but some of us like to celebrate the Fourth of July on ... the Fourth of July. Big is good, but give me your "oooh, " your sigh, the neighborhood-oriented fireworks of your teeming sky. I lift my sparkler beside thy smaller door. ( "Use under adult supervision, dispose of properly. ")

I like great, big Rhythm and Booms just fine. But like most of Madison throughout history, I love Independence Day. Friday night we have several aerial displays to choose from.

I was raised on fireworks at Westmorland Park on the Near West Side, so close to the mortars that nearby homes -- and those of us on blankets -- were showered with ash. That was perhaps a bit much, though it had a splendid and amazing effect on my high school girlfriend, Amy.

Westmorland still celebrates, but the fireworks are gone. So is Amy. I continue to annually crave neighborhood skybursts, preferably with up-close ground displays of fireworks flags and hot showering "waterfalls " -- and better yet if there are fireflies in the foreground as dusk falls.

Can explosions be intimate? You bet. And the only "rhythm " or other musical accompaniment I need is from kids two bedspreads down, dancing and screaming with every "pow! -- sssss! -- boom! "

Could there be a more perfect holiday? Other celebrations are swell, but you get to spend the Fourth outside, eating potato salad and grilled food with friends. There are no pickles and mustard at Halloween, Christmas or Valentine 's Day. On the Fourth you don 't have to buy stamps, send cards, order flowers, get candy, give gifts or make resolutions you won 't keep anyway.

Yes, there are mosquitoes, but there 's no family guilt whatsoever. Which itch do you prefer?

Every Fourth we might nod and briefly acknowledge the 13 Colonies and the revolution and all that. We might better remember that whites first settled in Madison in 1837, just 61 years after 1776. As a territory, Wisconsin was owned by Great Britain until 1783. We continued to be administered by Britain until 1812 -- 25 years before Madison settlement. Almost every adult here knew a time when we were governed by a king, half a world away. Independence was something new, something you could very nearly touch and taste.

In Wisconsin tradition, during the city 's pioneer era in the late 1830s, Independence Day primarily was an occasion for fireworks of the internal and liquid variety. There was a wise public backlash. The Wisconsin Express newspaper smugly reported in 1840 that the Madison holiday included "no drinking of hard cider and harder brandy, which doubtless were the order of the day in most parts of the country. "

Even without demon cider, there were still dangers. When we celebrated Independence Day in 1851, DeLancy Thayer stood too close to a cannon that misfired. Besides "tearing off all his clothes, " the blast cost him both arms. In 1871, a similar accident killed John Baetz.

In reaction, by the 1900s things had calmed considerably. Civic leaders squelched gunpowder and argued for "The Sane Fourth. " Historic photos show that, as a result, we instead came in horse-drawn carriages to Vilas Park, to gather with white linen and parasols. There we celebrated with a very civilized . . . Maypole dance. Really. Even a century ago we were groovy and green.

By the 1910s we again got into the spirit of things, with parades around the Capitol Square. As dusk fell, Madisonians annually descended to the site of today 's Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center, for fireworks over the lake.

These days we 're a bit patriotically schizophrenic, divided in our loyalties between Rhythm and Booms and the also-rans. I very, very much prefer tonight 's smaller festivities.

Finally, let me conclude by asking: whatever happened to "snakes, " those strange, smoking tablets that grew into writhing streams of ash that left permanent sidewalk tattoos? You don 't see 'em anymore. They were as much a part of youthful Fourths as Amy on my blanket.

For that matter, where is Amy?

Ssss -- boom!

IF YOU GO

Among this weekend's area fireworks festivities:

Monona Community Festival — Madison's adjacent neighbor to the east features a carnival midway that opened Thursday at Winnequah Park, 1012 Nichols Road. Activities include restaurant specialties at Taste of Monona and fireworks Friday night at dusk.

Elver Park — on Madison's Far West Side, at 1250 McKenna Blvd. Neighborhood festivities conclude with fireworks scheduled for about 9:30 Friday night.

Shorewood Hills — This is my friendliest favorite, just west of the UW-Madison campus. Fire department volunteers there have been shooting off fireworks since 1948. See them Friday night at about 9 at the Blackhawk Country Club, 3606 Blackhawk Drive. The Madison Municipal Band will give a concert on the grounds starting at 8 p.m. Donations for the fireworks and band will be solicited by the Shorewood Hills Fire Department.

Baraboo — located on the athletic field at Baraboo High School/Middle School, on Draper Street. A concert by the UW-Baraboo Campus/Community Concert Band begins Friday night at 8, with fireworks at dusk.

DeForest — Part of the community's weekend festival, live music begins at noon Friday, with fireworks at dusk, at Fireman's Park, 500 Jefferson St.