Note: I love to re-post posts from the past. This one is from July 5th, 2005 about watching the fireworks from my father’s apartment in Brooklyn Heights, back when there were fireworks on the Brooklyn side.

It helps to have friends in high places. Especially on the fourth of July. And a river view doesn’t hurt.

My father and stepmother live in a high-rise apartment in Brooklyn Heights with a sumptuous view of New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty, and the Lower Manhattan skyline. On 9-11, they watched in horror as a plane crashed into one of the Twin Towers. Then, they were evacuated frm their building in those first uncertain hours when it was feared that there might be more attacks to come.

Like the rest of the city, they have, for the most part, moved forward from that day. But their view will never be the same. Something that once brought them such pleasure is now tinged with death and destruction

But it is still one of the most beautiful urban views in the world with its sparkling lights, elegant bridges, tall buildings, and boats in the harbor: it is an endlessly interesting vista to soak one’s sight in. And on the 4th of July there is no better place to revel in the booming brilliance of Macy’s fireworks.

This year was advertised as the best ever: right up there with the Brooklyn Bridge celebration, the bicentennial, and the millenium. A group of eight adults and one seven-year old, we borrowed my father and stepmother’s apartment and used it as our viewing stand (they were upstate at their country house). We drank their champagne, we used their crystal glasses. We cleaned up after ourselves.

And we oohed and ahhed, privileged to have such a view. The Macy’s barges, which were literally framed by the apartment’s windows, sent bouquets of shimmering colors and shapes so close to the window we could practically smell it…

You can read the rest of the story here.