Celebrating Independence Day

Today, I am preparing to go to south Alabama to see my parents for the July 4^th holiday. I am very excited about the visit because I don’t see my family but 3-4 times a year since moving out of state. As I was thinking about the visit, I began to reminisce about how the Independence Day holiday has changed from when I was a child.

From my childhood perspective, July the 4^th was a HUGE holiday.  Although fun, the summer seemed to stretch on forever. We lived in the country and although there were several boys that were my brothers ages, there were no girls my age except in town. At that time, we did not go to town on a whim like people do today. We went on Mondays to deposit the church money (my mother was the church treasurer) and we went on Fridays to buy groceries. Occasionally we would go to the park to swim, but usually we spent the summer at home. So the holiday was very exciting.

Daddy, my Granddaddy, and all of my uncles were off from work.  I had several aunts who worked outside the home and they were also off for the day. Everyone would go to my grandparent’s house beginning in the early afternoon. The grill would already be heating up and the fryer would be set up and ready to light. Grandmother would be in the kitchen with the aunts cooking and all of the men would be outside in lawn chairs talking and watching my Granddaddy cook the meat du jour. There was not a square inch of the house or yard that did not smell of wonderful food.

The yard was full of cousins of all ages, adult and teenage cousins with their new wives or girlfriends and the cousins who were still children and toddlers. Everybody running around and playing games such as hide and seek, tag and mother may I? Everyone was happy and relaxed.

Around two in the afternoon, we would all sit down and eat! There was food for days and tables of desserts.  After everyone was finished eating, it was time to make ice cream. There were electric ice cream makers but there were also the hand crank mixers.  The hand crank mixers were easy to turn at the beginning, but as the ice cream would start to freeze, it would get more difficult to turn. As the crank became more difficult, I along with the younger children would be enlisted to sit on top of the freezer to hold it steady as the crank was turned. I always felt very important getting to sit on the freezer! For the cousins who were too small to sit on the freezer, the uncles and older cousins would give them the “important” job of making sure the hole on the side that allowed the water to drain was not stopped up by ice and salt.

While the ice cream was being churned, there would often be a game of baseball being played in the yard or some other activity going on.  Nighttime however, was the most exciting part of the day. The area that I lived in did not have a fireworks display, but we bought firecrackers, sparklers, roman candles, and cherry bombs from the little store down the street from my grandparents house. A dollar would by a brown paper sack full. Everyone got to shoot fireworks. Not only did we shoot fireworks into the air, we had fights and played war with them, throwing them at each other as if they were hand grenades. Looking back, it is a miracle that none of us died. We had ringing ears, scorched fingers and occasionally had very angry mothers because of holes burned into clothing, but no major injuries.

After the fireworks, we would pile up into our cars and head home exhausted. Looking back, I would give anything to be able to relive just one holiday. Just once more to have my grandparents, all of my aunts and uncles, and the 2 cousins that are deceased back together and in one place. The last time we were all together, there were 50 of us. Now almost 20 years later, there are just too many to count. I regret that my children did not get to experience family holidays as I did as a child.