Saturday, July 5, 2008

Tonight I Got a Lesson In How the Other Half Lives

Now, I’ve known since I started working here that there is big money in the township; as evidenced by the number of multimillion dollar homes. I don’t know what the average annual salary is in this town but I do know that it is far more than what this paramedic makes. Tonight I’m working a short shift- just 16 hours. When I came in I was informed that in one of the townships that we cover we had a standby event due to a fireworks display.

Apparently there is this gentleman who lives in the township who owns a rather successful local company and every year he puts on a party for his employees and this year I just happened to be on duty for it. The owner of the company lives on this big estate here in the township; we pulled up, parked the ambulance and were immediately directed by the gentleman and his wife to the tent where there was quite a spread. There were people milling about, eating, drinking and generally being merry. We were happily dining at the well catered event when the lights in the field were turned out and the firework started. Last night I drove up to Mt. Washington in Pittsburgh in the hopes of finding a decent vantage point to both watch and photograph the fireworks, but after realizing how long it would take me to get down off Mt. Washington and back to my apartment I decided to pack it in and just head home for the night (besides the weather was overcast and wouldn’t have made for good photos). After seeing this show I don’t feel so bad about not seeing the fireworks in the city last night.

I grew up in a small town in Maine where the annual Fourth of July festivities were pulled off on a relatively small budget; this private party had a fireworks show that surpassed any that my hometown had ever been able to pull off. The price tag for this little shindig had to be well in to the six figure range and there had to have been at least three to four hundred people in attendance. I’m moving back to Maine in a few months and was thinking that I might take a trip back here next year with some friends over the Independence Day weekend- maybe instead of fighting traffic I’ll just crash the party.

No comments: