Wed 2 Jul 2008
Our family really enjoys the 4th of July. We recall why we celebrate, we dress up in red, white and blue, we eat barbeque and enjoy assorted beverages. Each year we manage to get a photo of our kids as they are decked out early in the day and email it out to the family. It’s lots of fun.
Our little neighborhood has a 4th of July parade that consists of all the kids in the neighborhood riding their scooters, skateboards or whatever, down the street to the local park. It’s very small-town, in a good way. You’d never know we were a short drive from our nation’s capitol.
After the parade, we load up a cooler and head for the pool to spend the afternoon in the sun, followed by a dose of meat on the grill, shooting off some fireworks and ending up with everyone in bed at a reasonable hour, exhausted. Even before we had kids, Susan and I would stake out a space along the parade route and root for the kids going by.
There have been some interesting years along the way when we were not in the neighborhood. Last year, for instance, we were at my sister’s house in Hawaii. Her husband is a big cheese in the Navy in Pearl Harbor and it falls on him to throw the annual Independence Day party because his house has the biggest back yard among all the quarters down by the docks on the base. It’s a real bash with people from all over the world attending. My kids had a great time meeting people and eating all they could eat. That evening we watched fireworks over the harbor from the fantail of a frigate moored in Pearl Harbor. Not too shabby.
Another year, we enjoyed the 4th at my brother’s house in San Diego. His house abuts a huge park, so on the 4th it falls on him to provide the house that serves as a weigh station for the event. Big fun.
This year we’re back home again and I’m looking forward to it. I’ll ride my skateboard along with my kids and their bikes in the parade. We’ll do the same stuff we do every year. There is a certain comfort in annual rituals like this. It keeps me grounded.
So, go out and enjoy your own Independence Day rituals. Or start a new one this year. If you work it right, you can stretch it out all weekend.