Fireworks Next as 4th Gets Off to a Good Start

Death, we are told, takes an occasional holiday. But not so the slice.

And therefore Cal Fackerell, a 48-year-old bartender at Bully’s drinking and dining emporium in Mission Valley, was at the driving range of the Stardust Golf Course on Friday with a big bucket of balls.

It was the Third of July, a day off for most, and Fackerell was spending it “the San Diego way: sun and fun.”

To the beaches, the golf courses, the freeways, the parks, the eateries and the Del Mar Fair they went, as San Diego County residents and tourists attacked the long weekend with gusto. Lengthy traffic jams were reported along Interstate 5 leading to Sea World and the Del Mar Fair.

“The Fourth of July is to summer what Christmas is to winter: a break in the action and a time to feel good,” said John Carreno, manager of Grant Jewelry Co. at Broadway and Union Street downtown, as he stood outside his store beckoning customers. “The sailors are all on leave so our business is good.”

Thousands at Beaches

An estimated 88,300 people visited San Diego city beaches, making it the biggest crowd of the year, lifeguard Carla Gilmore said. Despite the large crowds, she said, there were no major rescues, mainly because the surf was a calm one to two feet.

“The tides are really high, so there’s less beach and all the people are kind of compacted together,” Gilmore said, adding the high tides will continue today when an even larger crowd is expected.

“It’s been busy, lots of people and cars, but mostly mellow, just a few drunks and a few Muni Code violations, glass bottles on the beach mostly,” said J.D. Filley, a motorcycle officer assigned to Mission Beach. “Saturday and Sunday are going to be the big days.”

Fireworks displays will be seen throughout the county tonight, from National City to Glorietta Bay to the Del Mar Fair to Rancho Bernardo.

On Coronado’s Glorietta Bay, the display will begin at 9 p.m., synchronized to music broadcast on Q106 on the FM dial and 600 on AM. The Del Mar display will follow a Pat Boone concert at the fairgrounds. In National City, the fireworks are planned for 10 p.m. above Kimball Park.

Other fireworks shows include 9 p.m. shows at Chula Vista, J Street Marina; El Cajon, Granite Hills High School; Lakeside, El Capitan High School; La Jolla, Scripps Park at La Jolla Cove; Mira Mesa, Mira Mesa Community Center; Ocean Beach, the Ocean Beach Pier; Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Bernardo Inn driving range; San Diego, Sea World and Fiesta Island; San Marcos, Linda Vista Park; Spring Valley, Spring Valley Park and Recreation Center; Tierrasanta, Tierrasanta Community Park; and Vista, Brengle Terrace Park.

If relaxation and fun were the order of the day Friday, a sense of history wasn’t far beneath the surface.

“What’s the Fourth of July mean? Easy, that’s independence, something worth defending,” said Jerome Luckett, a 29-year-old Navy hospital corpsman, as he sat on the steps of the Armed Services YMCA downtown.

“Independence is where everybody gets the same break and then it’s up to you to grab it,” said Tom Miller, 74, a pensioner living in a downtown hotel.

Greg Benson, 26, offered another perspective. He’s an expatriate San Diegan who married a Swede and now lives south of Stockholm. He’s vacationing here and soaking up the sun and enjoying the burritos and taquitos at El Indio’s restaurant on the outskirts of Mission Hills.

“I miss the sense of freedom and spirit in this country,” Benson said. “Sweden is a wonderful place in many ways. All my health, education and child care is paid for, and so is my unemployment insurance if I lost my job.

“But you don’t have the same sense of opportunity and optimism you do here. Americans are willing to take a chance and not settle for less. That’s what this holiday is about.”

James Wilson, 23, an East San Diego car mechanic who spent the afternoon window shopping at Horton Plaza summed it up: “The Fourth of July is when those dudes really got it down.”