Thursday, July 5, 2007

July Fifth

Around my house we refer to the 'fourth of July' as "Independence Day." And we make allowances for few exceptions to the rule. I've never tried it yet, but I think I may, one of these years, make an effort to fill in the date line on a personal check on that day, "Independence Day, 200(8,9, whatever). Y'all remind me next year and I'll sure give 'er a shot. As a matter of fact, I'll make it a point next year to pay by check on that day for any purchases I make, and we'll see how many of 'em get through. If questioned about the date, I'll simply reply: "isn't that the way you spell july fourth?" lol

Independence Day is one of the few days in the year that I absolutely refuse to work on. Others are Thanksgiving and Christmas Days. My personal opinion is that what with all the holidays listed on the calendar, weekends, birthdays, anniversaries, and what have yous, there are an abundance of reasons and days to take off work, few of which rise to the level of holy day status. For myself and my family, the three days I've listed above pretty well cover it. And btw, neither do we refer to Christmas Day as December twenty fifth. Hey!, there's another idea for making transactions on that day (only those that are necessary, of course). The date line might read: "CHRIST-mas day, 2007; or I just might throw an "anno domini" in there somewhere, who knows.

Anyway, here we find ourselves on July fifth; the day after Independence Day. Nothing really significant about this day except, as I said, it's the day after a significant American holiday. And of course there's a lot of cleanup to be done and whatnot. But more importantly it's a good day for reflection...

We had a fair Independence Day this year. And there's a reason I say "fair" the details of which I won't share with you here. Suffice it to say that something unexpected happened that pretty well threw all our planned events somewhat out of whack. Nonetheless, we had a lot of fireworks (and I do mean a lot) and we managed to get them all fired off. My eldest son and I took the opportunity from work to build a nice picnic table for the family as well. There was plenty of food and all that too.

Another thing we did this year, different than years preceding, was to make colonial style hats for the two younger boys. And since they have dvds of "Johnny Tremain," and the "Daniel Boone" series, they thought those were about the coolest things they'd ever been given, and they wore them with pride. I remember one year that my wife helped the girls make themselves Pilgrim style dresses for Thanksgiving. They came complete with bonnets and aprons, and the whole nine yards, no pun intended.

On the hats for the boys, and if you care to do it for your own sometime, they're very easy to make, and inexpensive too. Just buy them a five-dollar 'felt' cowboy hat at Wal-mart or wherever. In my neck of the woods Wal-mart keeps them in stock in youth sizes. Other than that, all you have to have is something with which to pin the rim up on the sides and at the back. That's all there is to it. My wife used a needle and thread with ours. All I did was show her (precisely) where to sew. On the dresses for the girls, well, you'd have to discuss that with my wife.

But like I said, all-in-all we had a nice Independence Day celebration this year. The children certainly enjoyed it thoroughly. They had a lot of fun setting things up, decorating the yard with balloons and flags and other patriotic novelties. And of course, as I said, the fireworks were plenty and of very good quality this year. And I expect that the boys will henceforth want their hats as part of their way of celebrating future Independence Days. In fact, I think I'll make me one next year.

I hope all of you had a nice Independence Day celebration as well. And may we all improve upon our celebrations in the years to come.

-DW

2 comments:

Michael Tams said...

TM,

Sounds like you had a great day (from what we know, lol). I read parts of the Declaration to the kids, who stared in amazement and then said... "um, want to play soccer with me?" LOL, what can you expect, better luck next year!

I won't work on those days either, my friend, that's about as close to holy days as it gets in our house, too.

Of course, fireworks are banned in Illinois, so every city, village and municipality has their own show, and our town's is pretty good. Except we didn't see it again this year due to both children being sound asleep by 8:30 and the show beginning at 9:30.

Like I said, better luck next year!

Terry Morris said...

Yeah, I've seen the MEGO look in the eyes of my children as I've read to them the Declaration before too. Particularly the younger ones who learn rather quickly that they're going to sit through the recitation quietly, respectfully, and somewhat attentively whether they like it or not.

You can be comforted in knowing, however, that as they get older that look tends to change to a more interested and a more attentive look. And they actually do begin to ask questions on the meanings of certain phrases contained therein. That's when it gets fun for everyone, or virtually everyone.

Sorry that the kids missed the fireworks show though. I don't see anything wrong with communities celebrating Independence Day as a group, except of course that group activities tend to, by nature, overshadow individualism. This tends in itself to sort of remove from the individual his/her personal connection to the significance of the day, or the event, or whatever. And groups are almost always less attentive to the finer points than are individuals.

That's why I've always found it so vitally important to celebrate Independence Day, among others, as primarily a family holiday.

The smaller kids are always more interested in learning simple things like the pledge of allegiance, or songs like "You're a grand old flag," stuff like that. And it's always neat to watch them, as you pass to them their flag on Independence Day, take it and break into song. I always derive a lot of pleasure from that. :)