Why we oooh and aaah on the Fourth of July

July 4th was never just any old holiday celebration to me.

I didn’t fully understand it then, as I do now, but on the Fourth we really were celebrating our many freedoms and the many blessings that millions of people in countries around the world never get to experience on a daily basis.

We are free to peaceably assemble and protest or support ideas we disagree or agree with.

We are free to speak our mind candidly, without fear that our government is going to toss us into jail.

We have the freedom to come and go as we please — the freedom to quit our jobs and risk it all to start a company and become our own boss.

That is what Eddie Gabor’s dad did many years ago when he came to America from Hungary.

Eddie Gabor was my grandmother’s long-time companion. She’d lost her husband years before and had her share of loneliness until she met Eddie at church.

Eddie's father had come here seeking a better life for himself and his family, as millions still seek to do. He took the first job he could get — janitor.

He eventually started his own cleaning business and ended up employing scores of people and servicing the largest skyscrapers in downtown Pittsburgh.

Eddie Gabor’s father built himself a beautiful stone home high on a hill in the suburbs on the edge of a park that has one of the area’s most spectacular Fourth of July fireworks displays.

It was also the home where, for 20 years, my extended family would gather on Independence Day to watch the fireworks — because Eddie’s father was able to achieve his American dream there.

I’m not sure yet where I’ll be oohing and aahing the fireworks this 4th, but one thing is certain: Our country's current problems notwithstanding, I’ll make sure to thank God for the many blessings we continue to enjoy.

I’ll be sure to light a sparkler or two.

Tom Purcell, creator of the infotainment site ThurbersTail.com, is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Email him at Tom@TomPurcell.com.