Fireworks Display

The Carroll County Farm Museum will celebrate the Fourth of July in its usual grand way, starting at noon and ending with a giant fireworks display at 9: 30 p.m.Families are invited to spend Saturday picnicking on the grounds of the 140-acre historic farm in Westminster, visiting the farm buildings and enjoying various entertainment.Radio station WTTR-AM (1470) will broadcast from the grounds throughout the day. The Westminster Jaycees will put on the fireworks display again this year.Participants can bring food or buy hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries, sodas, pizza and ice cream from the many vendors.

Hoping this year will provide an even more phenomenal treat for the eye than last, the crowd looks to the sky with expectation.A rocket shoots off into the sky glittering green, then blue, and shimmering into gold as the sparks fall and resemble the branches of a weeping willow tree. The crowd cheers from lawn chairs and blankets. The fireworks become bigger, faster and more colorful. After all, they're the biggest birthday candles around.Fireworks and the Fourth of July have become synonymous, and celebrations for both seem to be on every corner: at baseball games, concerts, picnics.

Remember when July 4 meant a relaxing day with the family, having a picnic, and watching some fireworks after dark finally set in?You can still do that Friday at the Carroll County Farm Museum. Starting at noon, visitors can enjoy an afternoon and evening of fun, food, music, games, and yes, the Westminster Jaycees' annual fireworks display.Bring a blanket or chairs and your own food, or buy lunch and dinner from the booths at the museum. Hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, snowballs, fresh fruit, sausage sandwiches and french fries will be available.

RIGHT ON schedule, the heat wave is here at the turn of the calendar.Business is booming at the Savage Snow Cone Shack, and there's a crowd sitting on the rocks at Savage Park.Of course, not all of us can kick back and enjoy well-earned heat-induced leisure.The Patuxent Area Jaycees are busy planning and doing.They've recently renamed their newsletter, The Voice -- the winner in a name-the-newsletter contest that included such losers as "Howard's End."They are gearing up to help with the rubber duck race at the Lake Elkhorn Festival in early September.

Tribute on wheelsLook forward to a night of rock and a little more roll when Red Hot and Rollin', a skating dance troupe, presents "City Lights, a Celebration of American Cities" Saturday evening. The show incorporates hip-hop, comedy, juggling, music and, of course, skating in a tribute to American cities. As a highlight of the show, recording artist Lloyd Marcus will perform his original piece, "Red Hot and Rollin'," written for the show."City Lights" will be performed at Towson State University's Stephens Hall at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and children under 12. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Towson State University Dance Team.

Vintage VirginiaEscape to the country this weekend for the 16th annual Virginia Wineries Festival. Spread out a blanket on rolling hills or sit in colorful tents and enjoy '96 vintages, gourmet food and live entertainment.On Saturday and Sunday more than 40 Virginia wineries will be pouring more than 250 wines, and some Washington restaurants will prepare their most popular dishes, plus three stages of continuous jazz, blues, reggae and rock, a children's entertainment area, a juried fine art and crafts show, food and wine seminars and grape-stomping contests.

It is July 4, 1999. The Baltimore citizenry has crowded into the Inner Harbor, necks craned. The sound and trail of the first salvo of shells cranks up the excitement. Then all eyes track something that firework designers have been working toward for years. Spelled across the sky in letters of explosive color and light: "Baltimore 1999."Tonight this scenario won't play out in Baltimore, or elsewhere, but the Inner Harbor show will contain the seeds of such future displays.Shells that paint the sky with geometric shapes such as hearts, five-pointed stars, bow-ties and even peace signs represent today's cutting edge, says John Conkling, an adjunct chemistry professor at Washington College in Chestertown, and executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association.

Columbia's lake front will be the site of an annual rite Thursday, as thousands of Independence Day spectators try to squirm their way into that perfect spot to watch fireworks light up the sky across Lake Kittamaqundi.Hundreds of aerial shells are scheduled to explode across the skies during Columbia's 29th Fourth of July fireworks display -- a show that each year draws more than 30,000 people from throughout the Baltimore-Washington area.The display will be dedicated to Columbia's founder, James W. Rouse, who died this year, said Cole Drew, president of the Kiwanis Club of Columbia, which is sponsoring the half-hour show at 9: 30 p.m. Thursday.

An old-fashioned patriotic salute to the Fourth of July will be celebrated at Carroll County Farm Museum in Westminster tomorrow, the First of July.Since the farm museum began sponsoring the Independence Day event about 25 years ago, this will be the first time the celebration is to be held July 1 instead of the traditional Independence Day."We've been getting irate calls because of plans made by families coming into town and their picnics," said Dottie Freeman, museum administrator.The organizers said the change is for the best.

FOURTH FIREWORKS:The Baltimore area's largest July Fourth fireworks display -- musically choreographed -- will take place over the Inner Harbor at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.Among other activities in the area earlier that day: an antique and classic vehicle rally south of Harborplace's Light Street pavilion from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and continuous performances at the Harborplace Amphitheatre from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., including a combined show by the 100-piece 229th and 389th Army bands at 8 p.m.This year's fireworks are sponsored by NationsBank and Baltimore magazine, working with the city's Office of Promotion, Harborplace and the Gallery, and FM radio station MIX-106.