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