July 4ths of the past
I know many of you might be tiring of my ramblings about memories of my childhood, but I am about to do it again. I am only 27, so I don't have many grown-up stories stored up to tell, so I am pulling from what I HAVE experienced! But all truth be told, I think childhood tales are some of the best and most wonderful to tell.
July the fourth. I don't have a whole lot of memories of this day in particular. I remember a hazy day in 1983 when my Dad helped me decorate my Strawberry Shortcake Hot Wheels with red and blue streamers for a patriotic parade. A photo of me on this day is now framed and in Gardner's nursery, me freckle-faced and displaying the infamous-at-the-time Dorothy Hamill haircut.
I remember lemonade stands set up for business on this holiday. My friend Christy and I set up one year on this date in my front yard, ready to vend our pink lemonade and Jolly Ranchers (they were new, just out, and we thought they were so cool). We sat there all morning, drinking lemonade and eating Jolly Ranchers. We sold once or twice. We felt sick that afternoon, needless to say.
The most fond memories I have are of the parades my cousins and I used to rally up and participate in within their neighboorhood, just 1/8th of a mile from where we live now. We were living out of state at the time, but we'd almost always come back to visit during this week. We would get on our decorated bicycles (or tricycles), even donning festive costume (Pilgrims, George Washington, the classic American soldier), and ride up and down the street they lived on. My mom and aunt would walk alongside us, my aunt toting a tape player spouting out band marches at full volume, my mom waving plastic-handled flags back and forth. After a long evening of prancing to and fro, having neighborhood kids periodically file into our line to make our crew larger and more colorful, we'd collapse in the backyard and grab slices of watermelon, having seed-spitting competitions (I have never been able to spit them!).
The best year was the year (1988, maybe?) that my cousin Jonathan had the ingenious idea to squeeze said watermelons onto their swingset's metal sliding board....making it ever so slick and wonderfully dangerous. We grabbed sheets of waxed paper we stole from the kitchen and slid down that slide at warp speed, crumpling a few feet in front of it with a crash. What bruises. What stickiness. What fun.
Happy Independence Day.....and may your memories of today revisit you, too.
July the fourth. I don't have a whole lot of memories of this day in particular. I remember a hazy day in 1983 when my Dad helped me decorate my Strawberry Shortcake Hot Wheels with red and blue streamers for a patriotic parade. A photo of me on this day is now framed and in Gardner's nursery, me freckle-faced and displaying the infamous-at-the-time Dorothy Hamill haircut.
I remember lemonade stands set up for business on this holiday. My friend Christy and I set up one year on this date in my front yard, ready to vend our pink lemonade and Jolly Ranchers (they were new, just out, and we thought they were so cool). We sat there all morning, drinking lemonade and eating Jolly Ranchers. We sold once or twice. We felt sick that afternoon, needless to say.
The most fond memories I have are of the parades my cousins and I used to rally up and participate in within their neighboorhood, just 1/8th of a mile from where we live now. We were living out of state at the time, but we'd almost always come back to visit during this week. We would get on our decorated bicycles (or tricycles), even donning festive costume (Pilgrims, George Washington, the classic American soldier), and ride up and down the street they lived on. My mom and aunt would walk alongside us, my aunt toting a tape player spouting out band marches at full volume, my mom waving plastic-handled flags back and forth. After a long evening of prancing to and fro, having neighborhood kids periodically file into our line to make our crew larger and more colorful, we'd collapse in the backyard and grab slices of watermelon, having seed-spitting competitions (I have never been able to spit them!).
The best year was the year (1988, maybe?) that my cousin Jonathan had the ingenious idea to squeeze said watermelons onto their swingset's metal sliding board....making it ever so slick and wonderfully dangerous. We grabbed sheets of waxed paper we stole from the kitchen and slid down that slide at warp speed, crumpling a few feet in front of it with a crash. What bruises. What stickiness. What fun.
Happy Independence Day.....and may your memories of today revisit you, too.
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