Old Fashioned Independence Day

It’s the Fourth of July and I have no special plans to celebrate with my family. Perhaps we’ll persuade my son to light up the night with some of the fireworks he has been carrying around in the trunk of his car since his cross country adventure.

I remember back in my childhood when the Fourth of July was one of my favorite holidays. My family would spend the day in my grandparents’ hometown of Huntsville, Utah. Early in the day, there would be a parade down the main street. Afterwards, there was a carnival with hot dogs, barbeque, snow cones, cotton candy, popcorn balls and games in the town park. Later in the afternoon, the crowd settled in the church to hear deep-voiced and Sterling Wood read Edward Everett Hale’s “Man Without a Country.” It was a pretty long story and I didn’t understand the historic events, but a couple of things always impressed me. I’ll never forget how the main character, Philip Nolan said, “Damn the United States,…. I never want to hear her name again!” and how Sterling Wood’s bushy eyebrows were so animated as he told his story.

After the town celebration, families would go home for dinner and have their own fireworks after dark. My cousins would be at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. My brother and I were the same ages as my two oldest cousins. They were our best friends and partners in so many adventures. We floated down the town ditch on inner tubes. The bravest kids dared to float all the way through the culvert that ran under the road. Grandpa would begin the fireworks ceremony by lighting a red flare and putting it on the fence post near the patio. He always called the flare a “fusee” and Grandma called the patio “the potio.” We lit small black pellets that produced long snakes of ash on the patio. We also had sparklers of all colors and sizes. We’d get our giant sparklers lit and then see how many times we could run around Grandma’s house before the sparkler went out. Only my dad and Uncle Bud were authorized to set off the firecrackers and fountains. They put the firecrackers under tin cans or in culverts for maximum acoustics. Now that’s how to celebrate the Fourth of July!