Red White and Blue and don’t forget Green

It’s time to get serious about 4th of July plans. For me at least, when I think back to waiting in long lines of traffic to get a prime blanket spot at the Mega Fireworks displays in Dallas and Ft Worth and then dealing with the heat,  I can’t help but contrast those to simple neighborhood celebrations of years past.

Our little neighborhood is called Hometown and last year was our first 4th. Everyone decorated the kids and the dogs and themselves and walked – not drove – from their homes to the parade gathering area by the lake. We laughed and congratulated each other on decorating genius and sense of humor.
Once most everyone had shown up, a very casual parade to the park began. Nothing too fancy, no fireworks, no crowd control, no jostling, no conspicuous beer bash, just families and neighbors celebrating freedom. Just enough of all of that sentiment to bring the goose bumps and ear-to-ear grins.

I mentioned before that we had lived in a rural area in Southwest Texas. Every 4th there is a celebration in the park. Maybe 500 people come into town from tending goats and mending fences and their everyday solitary lives to join together as neighbors and Americans. It was our good luck that some of them brought their fiddlles, guitars, banjos and even a dobro. Nothing rehearsed or orchestrated or electric,  just sweet acoustic music to accompany the cicadas in the big Oak and Mesquite trees that made gathering in July possible.

One Fourth, 18 years ago, Karen and I had the good luck to end up in Concord Mass., where the Revolutionary War began.   Being one of the most  significant American towns on the road to independence, it was interesting to see what form of celebration had evolved in the birthplace of this experiment in Freedom.  Here we were in the company of direct descendants of the heroes who shed their blood for this freedom. How would their values show on Independence Day.

Our observation was that it had not changed much from the first celebrations. Nothing more than families and neighbors taking a day away from their chores and coming together as a community. Mostly blankets in the shade, picnic baskets, and people close to each other. In Concord even the clothing was unchanged. At times you could look around and there was no clue, other than the ice in the tea- oops, for that matter tea also might have been a bit in short supply in the summer of 1776 – that you had not gone back in time 215 years. Warm, wonderful totally fulfilling. And so simple. So Basic. So American. And without Fireworks from China to clean up afterward!

This year we will leave our car parked and our family will walk with our neighbors in a celebration of all that it means to be free Americans.

Red, White, Blue and Green.