July 4th

    When I was small, the 4^th of July was a big deal. The day began at 8 AM when all the town parks shot off one firework. We would stand at our front door and watch for the puff of smoke over the neighborhood houses.

     After breakfast, we decorated our house with flags. Then hit our bikes with red, white and blue streamers, crepe paper and baseball cards in the spokes of the wheels. Then we loaded in the car to go to the town parade, dreaming of the day we would be old enough to ride our decorated bikes in the parade like the big kids.

     I still remember the feeling of pride as the soldiers and veterans groups marched by us. The whole town was at the parade. We waved to neighbors and saw the high school kids from our neighborhood playing in the marching band. There was a great feeling of community. Our father talked about our uncle and cousins who had served in the war and made sure we understood the importance of this day to our country.

     After the parade, we went home and got ready to go to the carnival at the high school. But first we had to watch my mother’s favorite soap opera "As the World Turns". The Hughes family had their annual barbecue and Grandpa Hughes talked about our flag and the greatness of our country. We were proud to be Americans.

     At the carnival, we watched the watermelon eating contest and the potato sack races and rode the carnival rides and ate cotton candy with the rest of the kids from the neighborhood and their families.

     Unfortunately, the carnival was discontinued when I was still quite young. However, it became a tradition to remember the days of the town carnival and talk about the fun in later years at family barbecues that became the new holiday activity. We didn’t have a big family like the Hughes. There were only four of us and we had no Grandpa Hughes to make a speech but we made lots of great memories.

     After the carnival or barbecue, it was time for the kids to ride their bikes in the neighborhood, there were no helmets. We played with sparklers and talked about what each of their families had done and seen at the parade, while the adults got a little rest before the biggest event of the day – the fireworks!

     Finally, the light began to fade. Our parents gathered up blankets and slathered us with Off, as we headed for the big park behind the high school. The fire department was there in full force. There was a line set up we could not cross where these professionals would be firing off the explosives. We looked at all the metal frameworks that were the basis for the ground fireworks in the display. There were clowns working the crowd handing out balloons and candy to all the kids. It seemed to take forever until it was dark enough to begin. We kept asking our parents how much longer we had to wait. Time seemed to pass so slowly.

     First some of the ground displays would light and then the aerial show would begin. Next there would be a few more ground displays, then more shells bursting in air, until all too soon the grand finale began with so much to see on the ground and in the air we didn’t know where to look and the deafening noise! There was a bit of sadness as we picked up our blankets and threw away the trash being told to leave the park as nice as we had found it. We joined the rest of the town slowly filing out of the park talking about how much better this show had been than last and the other changes we had noticed from years past.

     This may sound like some idealized version of the times but I assure you it was true. We had differences but we also knew how to work and live together without strife.

     As the years went on, they stopped firing off the one firework to begin the day.  They stopped holding the parade on the 4^th of July and moved it to a Saturday. Three were fewer and fewer community events. People have become more isolated and divisive. When we were young, the adults did not all have the same beliefs and views, quite the opposite. But the thing that held them together and made these events great was the common goals for our country. They wanted us all to succeed. They wanted us all to take care of each other. If a parent was ill and could not take the kids to the fireworks, one of the other parents stepped up and the kids went with their family. We expected our country to be the best and most successful in the world. We dreamed of greatness, not failure. We talked of prosperity, not deficit. We knew there was plenty for everyone and that we all shared in the American Dream.

     I miss those days. I am disgusted that we have moved so far away from that society. We could make those ideals a priority again. We could begin to put society above the individual again.