“The United States is the only country with a known birthday.”
The weather each day is spoiling me with its warm sun and cool breezes. If I could invent the perfect weather, the last couple of days would have been patented under my name. The birds are singing, the spawns of Satan are chasing each other from tree to tree and Gracie is taking a nap. I feel like I’m in a Disney movie.
This is the first big weekend of the season. Cars will be bumper to bumper waiting their turns over the bridge. Bicycles will be hanging off racks on the back. The wait to get here is easily endured. The wait to leave never is. I have to go off cape tonight to a family party celebrating my aunt and uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary. He went into the hospital earlier this week, but we were just told he is being discharged today in time for his party. Today, fifty years ago, was their exact wedding day.
I have no plans for the weekend itself. This is when most of us who live here start to hibernate. Monday I’ll go down the street to my friends’ for a barbecue. We’ll do the all-American July4th menu of burgers and franks and deviled eggs I hope. It’s traditional after all. Later I’ll put out the bunting on my fence and add flags to the garden. My flamingo will be dressed like Uncle Sam.
Through my teen years, I always marched with my drill team in the July 4th parade, a huge one in the next town over from ours. The parade still exists and is still huge. People put out chairs in the pre-dawn hours to reserve seats on the sidewalks beside the road. The ones under trees are prime seating. The sellers of balloons and such walk up and down the route selling their wares. Every year I watched some poor kid see his balloon fly high into the sky. The kid always cried and most times got another balloon which was tied more tightly to a wrist.
Lat night I could hear fireworks from further down the street, and every night now through the 4th we’ll hear bursts and blasts. Celebrating a country’s birthday should never be confined to just a single day!
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: anniversary, cape cod, fireworks, July 4th weekend, traffic
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
July 1, 2011 at 1:26 pm
The evening is nice and cool over here and I´m enjoying it to the fullest 🙂 I´ve been bitten so much by mosquitos by now that the bites doesn´t itch any longer 🙂
It´s such a difference in how we celebrate our national day 🙂 🙂 🙂 We see it as a day off from work and perhaps goes to the countryside or have a picnic close to where we live, that´s all 🙂 🙂
No one really wanted our national day to become a holiday because they just removed another one we already had. The other one was always on a monday so we all knew we would get a long holiday 🙂
Tonight I´ll test my first ever fluffernutters 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
July 1, 2011 at 3:01 pm
I´ve eaten my first ones and I love it 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well worth waiting for 🙂
Thanks for sending those jars to me!
Christer.
July 1, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Christer,
You can now understand why we love fluffernutters!
July 1, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Christer,
The night munchers like mosquitoes have been out lately looking for dinner and buzzing around my ears.
We have barbecues and all sorts of get togethers on the 4th. My town has no parade but other towns do and then there are the town’s fireworks.
July 1, 2011 at 2:58 pm
I am sitting here at the Lester Pearson Airport in Toronto and today is Canada Day. According to my Canadian friends it marks the day of the Canadian Confederation. I forgot to ask if this is like their 4th of July. If it is then July 1st is the birthday of Canada. I don’t think that they do fireworks because it add to global warming. The day here has been gorgeous. I can’t wait to land at DFW in 98 degree heat.
July 1, 2011 at 4:16 pm
Bob,
The day here has been glorious. It is in the 70’s still-the perfect temperatures. I don’t envy your arrival home!
July 1, 2011 at 5:26 pm
Hi Kat,
I probably watched you marching in the parade as I grew up and still live in that town. My father was a firefighter here and one year we got to ride in one of the fire trucks in the parade. We were at the end with all the other fire trucks from surrounding towns, each one blaring sirens and ringing bells. It was so noisy I could feel the sound in my body. It was great!
I don’t go to the parade every year anymore but I do like to see the fireworks over the lake.
Have a great weekend.
July 1, 2011 at 11:40 pm
Hi Caryn,
You probably did see me march, and I too used to go to the fireworks over the lake. When I was really little, I could sometimes see them over the woods from my house. I was always excited when that happened.
You too have a great weekend!
July 2, 2011 at 9:31 am
We used to be able to see the fireworks from my mother’s bedroom window but now the trees between my house and the lake have grown so tall that they block all but the highest flying ones.
July 1, 2011 at 5:34 pm
We are weekend travelers and I’m writing this on a hotel computer. Will be back Monday after the fireworks over Lake Mary unless the family picks another location, barring a downpour which has hit us everyday since Monday. I marched with the boy scouts on the fourth and with the Roller Rifles as a teen. I want those days back.
July 1, 2011 at 11:42 pm
Z&Me,
I just got back from the party. Traffic was heavy but at least it was moving.
That parade was always really hot to march in, but I loved parades and all the pageantry.
July 1, 2011 at 9:20 pm
Het Kat!
Nice to know you have the same traffic troubles we have at the Jersey Shore…just think, all these people get for a weekend what we can enjoy all year round! 🙂
As for me, a quiet weekend with a cookout on Saturday night and work schedule on Monday. Not so bad.
Enjoy!
Coleen
July 1, 2011 at 11:43 pm
Hi Coleen,
The water draws them all the time. The traffic was amazing trying to get over the bridge when I was leaving. The Cape will be busy this weekend.
Enjoy the cookout-nothing better for the 4th!
July 1, 2011 at 9:48 pm
July 1 was the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party…we headed down to the Shanghai location for the first Congress and there were literally hundreds of people collecting stamp covers and getting special franks both from the local post office and from the Congress itself…the lines were ungodly but we were given gifts by fellow queuers.
Evening was a special concert at the Oriental Art Center. Next week is the high speed to and from Beijing.
but I sorta miss the good old 4th of July 🙂
July 1, 2011 at 11:45 pm
My Dear Hedley,
You had your own 4th, different but still exciting.
I used to miss the parades and fireworks when I lived overseas. Holidays weren’t the same even when we celebrated them ourselves.
Have a great high speed ride! I love trains.