“It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” What the heck happened to our normally dry heat? I thought I was back in Kentucky or Virginia. What we are calling humidity here would be an extremely dry day back there.

In 1989 we moved from Benicia, Calif., to Chesapeake, Va. It was late summer in our new home. The first couple of days had been very hot and very humid.

In Benicia we were used to having a couple of hot days, and then the marine layer would come across the bay and cool us with a light fog. Mornings like that were glorious after such hot days.

About the third morning we were in that new home, we awakened to what looked to be the cooling fog we were used to back on the West Coast.

Without looking at the thermometer, we poured our morning coffee and stepped out onto our deck expecting the coolness to envelop us. What coolness? The temperature was already near 89 degrees, and the dew point was there, too. We had stepped into a steam room.

The rest of the summer we waited on the cool evenings we loved. Californians don’t adapt to hot and humid days and nights. We love those evenings that cool us and we can open our windows.

Now, all of this high humidity will do nothing to stop a wildfire, should someone be stupid enough to use any type of fireworks in the Santa Clarita Valley. There are huge displays of fireworks all over our valley this weekend. We don’t need a repeat of last week.

Almost as stupid as the folks who throw a burning cigarette from a car. Should they get caught, I think they should have to spend two weeks clearing brush and pay a fine of maybe $10,000.

Last week, as I helped my sister evacuate and stood by to help someone else, I couldn’t help but think about this weekend coming up. A dry year and lots of fuel on the hillsides to burn. It ain’t looking so good, folks.

May I suggest that you don’t buy any “legal” fireworks? You see, they might be legal in the communities where you can purchase them – but not here in our valley. The box they come in might say “safe and sane,” but you void that statement if you bring them into the SCV. It won’t be safe and you won’t be sane.

I’ve lived in places where you can use all kinds of fireworks. Hawaii is one of those places. I don’t think the folks on those wonderful islands can have any celebration without firecrackers. In some states, it must be mandatory to shoot off rockets and “candles” that spray hot sparks of many colors all over the place, but not here in the SCV.

If you can’t get out to see the fireworks displays in our valley, I’d suggest a PBS program called, “A Capitol Fourth.” Music, entertainment and lots of flashes in the sky that seem to go on for a longer duration than anyplace else. Yep, Washington, D.C., really knows how to celebrate the birthday of our country.

If you ever get a chance to be in that place on July 4, I recommend you don’t sit near the cannons that are used during the playing of the “1812 Overture.” We sat too close one year, and I think my ears still ring from that event.

Another great place on the Fourth of July is Yorktown, Va. The parade starts with the Yorktown High School Fife and Drum Corps. The fireworks are set off over the York River from the bluffs that once had the Continental Army’s cannon firing on that little city. The history just overflows and saturates your every pore.

We can get the same feeling right here in the SCV. Just don’t do it at home.

If you light the fuse of a firework here in the SCV, you will remove any doubt regarding your intelligence.

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley, where he serves as executive director of the SCV Historical Society. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com. His older commentaries are archived atDManzer.com; his newer commentaries can be accessed [here]. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].