Just as dusk fell with a crescent moon shining in a dark blue sky, a hush fell over the huge crowd of families with young children gathered on the lawn from the parking lot to the lake edge in Buddy Attick Park. There in anticipation of the Fourth of July fireworks promised by the city, and seated on blankets and lawn chairs, the crowd was asked to be silent by Brian Butler of the Recreation staff, who held a microphone to announce an emergency. Stretching the microphone and small speaker as far into the crowd as the extension cord would allow, he again pleaded for quiet.
“There’s an emergency,” Butler repeated. Immediately the crowd nearest the stage fell silent and the silence spread almost eerily. “There’s a lost child at the stage,” he announced. He pointed out a Greenbelt Police officer at the park stage holding the small toddler aloft. “The baby can’t tell us his name,” Butler said, “but his mother was last seen near the basketball court.” He asked the hushed crowd to spread the word as far as possible toward the restrooms at the park entrance that a missing boy was now at the stage. Moments later the child was claimed, and large applause spontaneously erupted. Almost on cue, mere seconds later, the first rockets exploded in bright fiery colors and the “oohs and ahhs” of appreciation began.
Phones held aloft, many in the crowd took personal photos and video of the bursting flares.
The half-hour show took days and weeks of planning and preparation involving several city departments. Numerous Public Works trucks and crews mowed, mulched and pruned all areas of the 1.25-mile perimeter of the lake.
On the morning of the Fourth, more Public Works crews were putting up boundary tape and assisting the Maryland company, Innovative Pyrotechnic Concepts, with their setup at the lake dam near lake marker 10. A rowboat crew took some explosives out to floating barges, while the largest rockets were placed that morning on the lakeshore by the concrete spillway dam.
All morning, Greenbelt Police used golf carts to inspect the entire perimeter in order to plan their locations to help the entering and exiting crowds. Young people, wearing blue “Staff” T-shirts also spread out. Gratitude for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in this annual celebration particularly needs to extend to all the Greenbelt staff and volunteers who made these lovely moments possible again this year.
Buddy Attick, who was one of Greenbelt’s first police officers and also served as public works director in the 1960s through the 1980s, would have been proud of his successors and the spirit of cooperation and teamwork that made this year’s annual family celebration possible, safe and enjoyable yet again.