Things I Love - Fourth of July

When I was very small, Fourth of July was one of the best holidays ever.  I lived in a small town and we would drive to an even smaller town for a parade. It was the late 1970s and that parade was a classic amalgamation of local school marching bands, red and yellow firetrucks tossing candy off the back, a few classic cars, and my favorite, the grand finale, the spinning Shriner Fez cars. 

Then we folded up our aluminum lawn chairs and headed home to get our potato salad and spend the day at our aunt and uncle's house.  Back then, they had no kids of their own and so one messy day of wet grassy feet and red Kool Aid spills was okay by them.  I had a thousand cousins, more or less, and 14 aunts and 14 uncles plus two Grandparents who drove a wondrous white 1976 Chevy Impala that smelled like Avon perfumes and Old Spice aftershave.

When it finally grew dark, after tossing water balloons and stuffing ourselves on Jello and hotdogs, somebody produced Sparklers for us to light up. Half terrified, half mesmerized, we waved our prickly wands, holding on with sticky fingers until the last spark fell into the grass and we were taken home and tucked into bed, exhausted and blissed out.