Saturday, July 3, 2021

Memories Are Made of This

Happy Birthday,
USA!


    Fourth of July Memories

  A Midwestern child of the 1950s and 60s, my Fourth of July holiday was about picnics, parades, fireworks, and mostly, lots of family. Aunts and uncles, great aunts and uncles, grandparents, cousins — it was a happy excuse to get us all together.
My sweetest memories are of the picnics that were held either at a cousin’s farm or another cousin’s home on a big river. 

  At the farm, most families arrived the evening before and pitched a tent somewhere in the vicinity of the farmhouse to be close at hand and not miss any of the fun. The children checked out cousins we hadn’t seen in months, ran wildly around catching lightning bugs, throwing sticks into a big bonfire that lit the night. Finally, exhausted, we went to sleep listening to the soft, deep voices of the men tending to a whole hog roasting in the glowing embers of a trench freshly dug in the ground. 

  On the morning of the 4th, the women fried dozens of eggs fresh from the chicken coop in giant frying pans, with bacon, sausages, and pancakes, for breakfast. Coffee was served from big blue enameled coffee pots all morning. Then, while mothers and the older generation rested in lawn chairs and cheered us on, dads and children played baseball in the smoky aroma from the roasting pig. When the dads tired and declared the game over, the children took up croquet, lawn darts, and hide-and-seek until finally, at last, the big dinner bell was rung. Long tables of salads and desserts, watermelon and icy soda pop appeared to accompany the centerpiece — that huge pile of fragrant, juicy pork.

  When we were sated with food, naps were taken until we gathered in the evening in a long line of lawn chairs placed along the edge of a cornfield. Here the Big Boys (as we called the older cousins) and a few dads brought out the fireworks while the grandmothers and mothers tut-tutted about safety, the silliness of boys and noise, and rumors of ear drums ruptured from just such doings, cautioned the children to stay back from the action. Two rusty barrels with lids sat at the ready. The show began. 

  There were no beautiful fireworks with colored fountains raining from the sky, only the loud banging sort and little white sparklers we children held. A favorite scheme of the Big Boys was to drop firecrackers into the barrels, magnifying the sound and blowing the lids off the cans. Oohs and aahs would follow and the boys would race into the corn to find the lids for the next round. 

  One memorable Fourth, talked about for years since, was the one when several boys threw lit firecrackers into a barrel at the same time and ran away. All heads bent far back and our eyes followed the lid, up up up into the sky like a flipped nickel, floating back down and 

   Landing

     Right 

        Square 

           On the barrel 

              From which it had been launched!!!!!! 

  It’s the truth. I saw it with my own eyes. 

14 comments:

  1. What wonderful memories. Having lived in 6 different locales from birth through high school I have no one memory of the fourth celebrations. Every years was probably different.

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  2. You have some great memories! Fun time in the old days...I always recall a trip to the lake for a swim:)

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  3. Nice memories. It's too bad we couldn't have some of those celebrations again.

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  4. I can safely say that I have no fourth of July memories, so I enjoyed reading about yours. And we would never doubt the power of your own eyes!

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  5. Wonderful memories retold brilliantly.

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  6. Lovely to read about your memories of July 4th. Our fireworks were strictly for November 5th in my childhood, now they seem to be for any celebration or anniversary.

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  7. Wonderful, I celebrated with ... thank you very much.
    I congratulate you on Independence Day and wish you a happy day.

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  8. What wonderful memories! I laughed about the ruptured eardrums. We heard that too. Mama used to say, that's liable to rupture your eardrum! Families just don't get together like they used to. I miss that so much. My memories of the Fourth were made at Folly Beach. We spent two weeks there every summer. Sure enjoyed your post.

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  9. Dear Cynthia, thank you for sharing this wonderful memory. It brought back to me the 4th of Julys that we spent on the 20 acres on which I grew up. We didn't really farm as Dad had a job as a steamfitter. But Mom had a humungous garden and some of the produce was always part of the celebration on the 4th. family from both the Ready-side and the O'Mara side came out into the country to our place to celebrate. And you described so wonderfully well much of what was part of our celebration too. I'm grateful for the life I've lived (am living), and one of the gifts of being human is have a sense of taste (oh, the corn!) and also a brain that stores memories that bring back to me the love and laughter of the past. Thank you. Peace.

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  10. Hello I am a tad late to your 4th July party, Cynthia but I am hopeful it was as fun as you remembered. Well without the wild fireworks!
    Wren x

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  11. Oh my goodness! Right back on the barrel? That sounds amazing!!! Too bad there isn't a video of it.

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  12. Dear Cynthia, You haven't posted for nearly a month. Is everything okay? I so hope so. Peace.

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