Saturday, July 2, 2011

RED, WHITE AND BLUE

Don't you love being an American? Doesn't your heart swell with pride when you see the flags lined up on a parade route, the county square and the veteran's cemetery? What are you thinking when the night sky lights up with fireworks?

Independence Day usually falls on a warm day with a clear evening for celebration - flying the stars and stripes, joining a parade and enjoying a barbeque. Does everyone's menu include hot dogs and hamburgers and potato salad? How about iced tea and popsicles? The perfect topper is the fireworks display.

Over many years, Independence Day has been celebrated by my family in large or small ways. It is one of those benchmark dates in our family's history. You see, my husband and I met on July 3rd. I won't tell you the year. Before that evening with our friends ended, my future husband invited me to join him for the fireworks display the following evening. I said 'yes' and we were together ever after - so to speak. OK - the year was 1950 and we were married the following year.

Our family has attended lots of fireworks displays or watched them from or own back yard in Illinois and in Arkansas. We celebrated most of them with family and friends in a backyard barbeque of hot dogs, hamburgers and potato salad. These past few years the area I reside in celebrates Independence with a 2-3 day schedule of events from a street parade, auto show, rodeo, music and art festivals, a turtle race topped off by a spectacular fireworks display on the beautiful new college campus. I attend with family and friends and it is more impressive every year.

Like everything else in the ecoomy, the cost of fireworks is outrageously expensive so that local businesses contribute generously to this 2-3 day event. One major contributor is the attendees themselves as they purchase lottery tickets for a 'one-of-a-kind' pendant, designed and created by a local jeweler and valued, this year, at $7,000. We purchased a bunch of tickets. We did not win the pendant but the fireworks gave us a spectacular return for our donation. There will be two more fireworks displays in nearby towns on the 3rd and 4th. I'm not sure we will be going to those events but we will certainly be flying our Red, White and Blue flag of Stars and Strips. We may invite a few friends over as we cook up some hot dogs and carve a fresh watermelon for the occasion.

God Bless our Patriot soldiers from 1776 - and all the Minutemen (and women) who have guarded our independence and freedom to this day. Don't you love being an American? Doesn't your heart swell with pride when you see the American flags flying. Does the Fourth of July, with fireworks bursting in air, hold some special meaning for you? Tell me how you celebrate Independence and Freedom. I'd like to know.

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