By Thomas Thorspecken
On July 4th I went to Ski Beach Park (201 E Dixie Ave, Leesburg, FL) for the Star Spangled Spectacular. I went fairly early to sketch the people who gathered for the fireworks. Parking in a field was still easy to accomplish.
The park overlooks Lake Harris and Monkey Island which has the remnants of a former boy scout camp . Across the narrow channel is the Pat Thomas Baseball Stadium that I sketched at several weeks ago.
People were already setting up tents and lawn chairs lake side. I saw that there was more activity at the tip pf the peninsula, so I walked in that direction. At the tip of the peninsula there were sand volleyball courts, food vendors, a stage and amusement rides.
I decided that the Berry Go Round was the most patriotic ride to sketch. Children would enter the dark interior of the berries and then a door would close behind them They could control how much the berry spun by using a steering wheel in the center of the berry. The Ferris Wheel was also quite popular with kids and parents alike.
As I sketched, the sky grew menacingly dark behind me. Thunder rumbled and the first rain drops hit my sketch. I cursed the fact that I had left my umbrella back in the car. I rushed back before the rain grew torrential. With the umbrella in hand I hiked back to the amusement rides, where I waited for the rain to stop. With my second pass at completing the sketch the crowds grew larger and a band started playing covers from the stage.
Behind me, Captain America was posing with kids. The sky grew even darker before I finished the sketch. I decided I would not be staying for the fire works. Having worked at Disney Feature Animation kind of turned me into a fireworks snob. At Disney I could watch fireworks every night of the week. Back at the Lake County studio I had cut a watermelon in half and served the two halves with a spoon. I still had plenty of watermelon left over and wanted to get back to scoop more out. That is my idea of a decent way to celebrate July 4th.