Independence Day Reflection

I got to thinking about my childhood and some of my favorite memories are about the Fourth of July. I grew up in Two Rivers, Wisconsin (a small town on Lake Michigan and proudly the "Home of the Ice Cream Sundae") and we celebrated every year with day long anticipation of the fireworks display. I was so fortunate to have a close knit family and tradition. My family...I could go on for days about them. I have 5 sisters and when I was young my mom and dad. Dad died when I was in 8th grade and sadly so did some of the traditions that I miss.

Every July 4th our cousins from the "country" would come and spend the day. They had 3 boys and 1 girl and luckily for me Dawn was my age and I loved when we got together. The day would start with a trip to downtown to watch the parade. Afterwards we played and rehearsed our annual "firecracker boom, boom, boom" cheer while my God-parents and Dad went golfing. When they returned my dad would "fry out" which is barbecuing for the rest of the world. That was always a sight. He had 2 bottles of beer - one for drinking and one for "putting out the flames" which I am pretty sure actually did have water in it.

The town shot off the fireworks from Neshota Park which is near the lake. We had a perfect view from our back yard. The older kids got to climb on the roof of the garage and watch. The rest of us had lawn seats. When it was over we would watch our dads light off our little firecrackers on the street. We always had the crowd favorites of snakes, smoke bombs, and sparklers.

And then tradition went away. I don't know why and it doesn't really matter. There were years that we stopped celebrating the way we had in the past. This year my family got together on the fourth and did things the old way. I just hope that my sisters continue this with their families forever. We don't get up north as often as we used to. We blame this on holiday traffic and there is never enough time to spend with everyone. I guess if I miss it so much it must be time to go home more. It's time for me to pass down the "firecracker cheer" to my nieces. Maybe next year I will be back.