Rockets of many colors lighting the night sky. A burnt T-shirt award. Thousands of families packing various locations in Cape Coral to be a part of the largest one-day event in Southwest Florida each year. As we celebrate the Fourth of July Saturday, the Cape’s Red, White & Boom spectacular is as much a part of the city’s history as our canals, the Yacht Club and Big John.

That history will include an asterisk in 2020 as for the first time in 52 years the event has been postponed until Sept. 5 because of COVID-19. Although Cape Coral Parkway will only include the noise of vehicles not the laughter, socializing and oohs and aahs of people Saturday, the event deserves a tribute as we celebrate 50 years of incorporation this year.

In 1968, when about 9,000 people lived in the Cape, gas cost 34 cents a gallon, minimum wage was $1.60 an hour and the first Big Mac was sold, an idea grew into the first community fireworks show at Lake Kennedy, near where Sun Splash Family Waterpark is located now.

The fireworks show was on the move after that, landing at Horton Park, Jaycee Park and Tarpon Point, before residing at its home on Cape Coral Parkway near the bridge since the 1990s. Jaycee Park– although located on the scenic Caloosahatchee — turned out to be not such an ideal place. One year, over 30 cars caught fire because of errant fireworks. Tarpon Point, the original site of the Rose Garden and spectacular shows that once featured the Waltzing Waters, water skiers and Bob Hope, saw thousands of spectators parked alongside nearby roads and in empty lots to watch the fireworks show. Former Mayor Joe Mazurkiewicz will tell stories of driving to Sebring to pick up the fireworks and then setting them off himself — as a licensed pyrotechnic — from a barge in the middle of the river. Singed T-shirts and bodies covered in debris were typically the badges of honor for the night. The chairman of the event was often the recipient of the Red, White & Boom “burnt T-shirt award,” according to longtime resident Elmer Tabor. Rainy events — and there are always many of those — often drew tow trucks, helping people whose cars were stuck in the mud.

Several hosts and sponsors have embraced the event over the years. The Jaycees were in charge for a number of years but because of financial difficulties, the service group handed off the fireworks to the Cape Coral Chamber of Commerce in the late 1980s. It was always important to keep the event near water so that boaters could enjoy the festivities from the Caloosahatchee. That’s a big reason why Cape Coral Parkway near the bridge proved to be an advantageous home. The chamber grew the event into a street party with food and drink vendors, bands, activities for children and a VIP area. Later, the chamber added a 5K run (in 2011) to start off the festivities early Fourth of July morning. The celebration became a labor of love for many of the volunteers, including Tabor.

PHOTO PROVIDED The “burnt t-shirt award” given to the chairman of the Red, White & Boom event during the early years of the Fourth of July fireworks show.

“It was the camaraderie and great bonds,” he said. “We would literally be sweating together. We would get up at 3 o’clock in the morning and not leave until 3 o’clock the next morning.”

The city of Cape Coral’s Parks and Recreation, which had been financially assisting the chamber for several years, fully took over the event from the chamber in 2015 and annually spends about $130,000 for the event.

Although a much anticipated Fourth of July activity each year, Red, White and Boom has featured its unusual moments. When computers became the way to set off fireworks, a malfunction resulted in the fireworks finale going off at the beginning of the show. Another year, the fireworks got wet from the rain, keeping the skies dark for much of the evening.

But the event remains a major part of the city’s history.

“It was a true labor of love,” current Cape Coral History Museum board president Gloria Tate told the Breeze in a past article. “It was our gift to the community. I don’t think people realize how much goes into it.”

Submitted by Tom Hayden, a Cape Coral History Museum board member. As we celebrate 50 years as a city, much of our area’s history, chronicled at the museum, will be featured twice a month in similar articles provided to the Cape Coral Breeze.