DON GONYEA, HOST:
Before we leave you this evening, one more postcard from this American city on the Fourth of July. Every year, a couple of weeks before Independence Day, Detroiters gather along the downtown side of the river that separates them from the Canadian city of Windsor. Across the way, Windsor residents do the same. And together, they watch fireworks.
LAKENA CRESPO: Back in the day, you would come here in the morning, and you would be here all the way until the fireworks started. And now I bring my children here.
GONYEA: Detroiter LaKena Crespo has been coming down to the river for this for 40 years.
CRESPO: It's just where the city comes together. Everyone is loving on one another. The fireworks are the best fireworks in the country.
GONYEA: There's a reason why Detroit holds its big fireworks show before the Fourth. For years, it was called the International Freedom Festival.
And Detroit and Windsor came together, and it was a joint fireworks display over the river between the two cities. These days, it's an American event, but still, the tradition lives on in Canada.
So it's not exactly a July Fourth celebration. It's also not exactly a Canada Day celebration, either. And at a time when tensions between the countries are higher than ever over tariffs and other trade issues, that this shared experience continues feels special. Seated in a reclining beach chair in a spot near the river, 78-year-old Excell Moore was wearing a ball cap that read Vietnam veteran.
EXCELL MOORE: I enlisted.
GONYEA: You enlisted?
MOORE: Yes.
GONYEA: You enlisted. OK.
MOORE: Yeah. I got to do my duty for my country.
GONYEA: Moore moved to Detroit after he left the service. He got a job in an auto plant and met his wife in the city.
MOORE: Seems like this is one event where everybody come together. I mean, you see every ethnic group out here, and it's a melting pot. And people are so friendly to each other.
GONYEA: He's not bothered by the recent geopolitical tensions along this border.
MOORE: And I go to Canada quite a bit. I like Canada over there.
GONYEA: What do you do over there?
MOORE: Casino.
GONYEA: Ah, OK.
MOORE: (Laughter).
GONYEA: And when dark settles in and the evening's main event gets started, it's hard to feel there's any real distance between the two countries at all.
(SOUNDBITE OF HELICOPTER FLYING)
GONYEA: Two helicopters just flew by, one after the other - the first one trailing a giant Canadian flag, the second one flying the American flag, the stars and stripes. And now the crowd waits.
Sabrina Williams and her daughter Omira stood watching as the sky was suddenly lit up with color. As they tell my producer...
UNIDENTIFIED PRODUCER: What do you think of the fireworks?
OMIRA: They're cute.
(SOUNDBITE OF FIREWORKS EXPLODING)
OMIRA: The orange one.
SABRINA WILLIAMS: I see a lot of aahs and oohs going on.
GONYEA: Williams has been coming to fireworks like these since she was a kid, and now she's doing the same with her daughter.
(SOUNDBITE OF FIREWORKS EXPLODING) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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