Happy 4th!

Subject:  Happy 4th!
Date:  Wed, 4 July 2001

Here in Squirrel Haven, it has been a good day to take it easy.  It seems the blink of an eye when family would be bustling about getting bikes decorated 

and chicken salad whipped together and our traditional double chocolate cake baked and frosted for the picnic.  The kids would have tied up their sneakers 

for the foot races and the family would have headed up to the pond for the swimming races.

My own favorite part has always been the flagpole ceremony.  This year, I had hoped to go, if either the college building or the library 

had been opened so I could camp out there during the parade.   Even if one of them had been opened, it is doubtful I would have made it.   This would have 

been a difficult day to get moving, even in my younger days.  It hit around 85F and still feels like 100% humidity, a good day to stay put in the big 

chair in the living room.

Elsa has been playing Americana tunes - Stephen Foster and Aaron Copeland and Sousa - to fill the house with a sense of the day.  To make sure that the 4th 

came to me if I was not able to get out to it, she "blew the wad" and has gussied up the front lawn in celebration of the day.  Fifty American flags 

line the driveway and the lawn at road's edge, four festive mylar balloons sail from the mail box, bunting hangs over the den window and there are other 

things I cannot recall that all together sing out, "Happy 4th!"   

Our "spring tree" transformed into a "summer tree" last night in the most delightful way.  Elsa had a workshop for four young ladies - Gretchen and 

Brett Pitcairn, Brooke Blair and Ali Elsing - to make double-chocolate cakes for their families' picnic tonight.  After they were done icing and having a 

high old time in the kitchen, they trooped into the living room and took down all the springtime flowers from the tree and gussied it up with tiny American 

flags, sea shells, sun flowers, butterflies and bees, and red, white and blue stars, with a pink dragon fly at the very top.   

It was wonderful to have special friends over the night before the 4th.  I always get lonesome for the past on the 4th.  Our family came together in 

smiles and fun more on that holiday than on any other day of the year.  There was often tension at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter gatherings, but I 

only remember smiles and happiness over the 4th.   In 2000, Carol and Deno and Justine, with Lindsay Reuter, were special guests who helped us usher in 

Independence Day.  This year, it was the four lassies and two mothers - Keene and Kris - who helped us kick off the day.  

Special fun for me was visiting with Kris Pitcairn.  I find it remarkable that she is old enough to have a 14-year old son.  She is so kind when she 

talks to me.  Instead of sitting in the chair across from mine or standing close to me and looking down, she settles down in front of me so we are 

eye-to-eye.  It is a small courtesy that means a lot.  I am honored to add  her to our merry little band of Mindwalkers.   

Well, I must go.  Elsa and I have not decided what to have for supper.  We want something simple yet all-American to go with our own cake, which is not 

the traditional Lockhart double-fudge cake.  Elsa left it to John to decide the frosting - deep chocolate cake with fudge filling and a whipped white 

frosting over the top and sides, a combination of favorite flavors merged into one tasty toothsome dessert.  

It is very dark out and feels like it might break out into rain at any moment.  I am so glad that it has been good weather so far this 4th - it is 

just not the same when parades or picnic or fireworks are delayed even a day. 

  
Looking out the window as dusk fell, I noticed the fireflies seem out in force.  Last year, back when the three of us often ate supper out back in 

good weather,  we noticed that the fireflies seemed unusually active.  It was just around this time of year and we got to talking about how the fireflies 

get together every year to put on a 4th of July extravaganza for their woodland neighbors.   

We enjoyed - all three of us - that image and even now it brings a smile to my face and the happiness of remembrance to my heart.  

Pretty soon, I will be hearing the distant boom of fireworks at Tamamend Park, where Lower Southampton holds its celebration, and the sound of 

sparklers and firecrackers and cherry bombs from down the street, but none could top the image in my mind of the fireflies’ display in a deep woodland 

glen.   

I want to wrap this up and take a more look outside while I can still see the flags at lawn’s edge and the balloons aloft above the mail box, to be still a 

moment or two with Pete and memories, so many happy moments and memories.   

A special memory before my final good bye.   After Elsa tucked me in for my nap, we talked a bit about other 4ths.  A memory came to mind so crisp and 

clear, it could have been last week, not half a century ago.  I had made cowboy outfits for Mike and Mimmy to wear in the parade.  I made a pair of 

chaps for Mike using upholstry fabric that Aunt Fanny had given me and decorated them with horseshoes cut out of red oil cloth.  I used the fringe 

from the fabric for the hem of Mimmy's skirt.  As I was making them, I was wistful that Pete and I could not afford to buy them real costumes, that 

their hats were store bought hats but the rest were homemade.  Then, I got to where everyone was gathering for the parade and saw how the other cowboys and 

cowgirls were togged out - in their store bought finery - and looked at my son and daughter and realized with some pride that they were the best of the 

lot. 

That day brought home the fact that store bought - outfits as well as cakes - can rarely top homemade.

Happy Independence Day to one and all - A Yankee Doodle Grammie