At a 2012 July Fourth fireworks display, weariness caused me to shut my eyes briefly. When I did, their explosive sound spawned a déjà vu moment that transported me back to Saturday, Dec. 27, 2003. That day, we took our older daughter, Christa, her husband, and their four children to Bushnell’s Dade Battlefield Park to see the Dec. 28, 1835, Dade massacre restaged.

On that date, the Seminole Indians ambushed a U.S. Army battalion led by Maj. Francis L. Dade. Only three of 108 soldiers survived. That re-enactment still draws a large crowd.