Independence Day Done Right

https://www.flickr.com/photos/eustaquio/4233348269/

It was Independence Day, and we had great fun celebrating it. Delicious food was made and brought, with the inevitable m&m's front and center. There were actual fireworks, really splendid ones that kept on going long past the time most displays have fizzled. There is nothing quite like the sheer darkness of a farm at night, punctuated by split bouquets of bright snowy blasts. It was all very satisfying.

Earlier we had watched from the porch as each next family group pulled in. It's always like this. No one sits inside and waits, bored. Everyone, younger and older, piles out of there and stands in an enthusiastic clot of welcome, and we all love it. It's a blast.

Let the festivities begin!

For those of my Readers who are not Americans (and your group continues growing!), may I say? The night is quite literally that - a blast. We are lucky because the neighboring farmer likes fireworks and hires people to come orchestrate them every July 4. It's a great thing to live next door to a Patriot. 

Through it all, families caught up with each other's children, or nieces or nephews, or grandchildren or cousins. It was a flurry of chatter and laughter and fun. Three sisters-in-law sat side by side in the sun, eating and comparing notes, discussing motherhood. At one point everyone crowded into the travel trailer someone was taking to the beach. At another point a favorite neighbor pulled up in an impressive 1946 John Deere model D tractor. It was a huge and sudden hit! What an abundance of compelling implements. The men would have stayed talking about it forever if it hadn't been for the fact that the tractor suddenly ran out of gas. The women watched as solutions to this problem presented themselves, and soon the tractor made its dramatic exit.



We stayed up late, reluctant to let it all end. But one by one we finally waved each other away, down the road, another 4th of July happily celebrated. As I fell asleep, verse 3 of my favorite patriotic song kept wafting through my mind, keeping me awake. 

'America the Beautiful':

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine!

America The Beautiful, Katherine Lee Bates -1913

I sure hope we don't forget the importance of those last three lines.


See you along the way!
the SconeLady


photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/eustaquio/4233348269/">Eustaquio Santimano</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>