WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. July 2, 2009: Mayor Joseph Delfino welcomed the crowd of about 7,000 persons who turned out for the rain-postponed Fourth of July Fireworks Display at White Plains High School Thursday evening. Delfino said wherever he traveled he always felt White Plains represented America to him, and mentioning he would not be running for reelection, he thanked the multitudes and his last words  (in his last fireworks display hosting) were "I love you."  

Mayor Says So Long to White Plains at the Fireworks Thursday Night.

Congresswoman Nita Lowey took the podium next and said we all should thank Mayor Delfino for what he has done for White Plains. Lowey said the annual fireworks display in itself showed what was great about White Plains the way families came together to celebrate the fourth. Then the display, colorful, cachoponous and "ooooing and ahhing and awing" delivered the spectacle of color and sound meant to evoke orginally the awe that Francis Scott Key felt when he saw shells exploding over Fort McHenry  in Baltimore Harbor in the year 1814 at the Battle of Baltimore.

Observing the rockets explode over the fort inspired Key to write "In Defense of Fort McHenry" which became "The Star Spangled Banner," which was adopted as the country's national anthem in 1916. 

Then all trouped home in the humid night.