WAUMANDEE, Wis. -- If Maynard Olson could have been here Fourth of July afternoon, he would have gotten a bang out of what his kids were up to again. 

A big bang. 

Olson, owner and operator of Scheidegger Implements of Waumandee, died suddenly in March 1999 at the age of 68. 

Now his children and grandchildren carry on the tradition of lighting up the Fourth of July sky over Garden Valley. 

Folks came from as far away as Eau Claire, La Crosse and Winona to watch while Ron Olson, 44, the leader of the Olson pack, orchestrated the 10th annual Olson Family Fireworks Extravaganza, an event you won't find listed in Wisconsin's tourist brochures. 

Which is just fine, because this wouldn't be the same event if it got much bigger. 

``My dad started it as something that he could give back to the community,'' said Olson, as his crew, including his twin sons, Matt and Mark, 22, used post-hole diggers to punch the holes that would hold the rocket launcher tubes. 

The tubes and fuses skirted the edge of a field where the corn was already more than knee high for this Fourth of July, thanks to all of that June rain. 

``He's gone now, but it just keeps getting bigger and bigger,'' said Olson. ``It gives you such a patriotic feeling.`` 

Wearing a blue Waumandee- Montana Volunteer Fire Department T-shirt that read ``Stay Back 500 Feet,'' Olson supervised the layout of about $900 in fireworks, which provide the 30-minute climax to three or four hours of Fourth of July fellowship. 

For the past nine years, a growing crowd of former Waumandeeans, their families and friends, have converged in four or five back yards to sip free beer and soda and remember the days back at Arcadia or Cochrane-Fountain City High Schools. 

Then they sing ``America the Beautiful,'' while a glowing flag display sends sparks flying, and ``ooh'' and ``aah'' when the rockets go up and the ground fountains send out multicolored showers. 

And they'd get you a beer if you asked nicely. 

Maynard Olson's wife, Shirley, said that in addition to thanking the community for its business, her late husband, a long-time member of the National Guard, was patriotic. 

He also just plain liked shooting off fireworks, the kids said. 

They never have any problem getting their permit from the fire chief. 

Ron Olson is the first assistant fire chief. 

Last year, some of the six Olson kids, who include Carol and Bill, visited Maynard at the cemetery and left behind six glowing sparklers. 

It was their way of telling dad that the show was still on. 

Judy Olson really believes her dad answered back. 

``There was this one bright star shining up there,'' she said, pointing to a notch in the valley sky line. ``When the fireworks were over, we noticed that it had vanished.`` 

``We think it was dad, his spirit, come back to watch.``