Happy 4th July to my American friends

Thank you so much, Jenny! We got home on the 3rd of July, so nice to be holed up and away from the mayhem of this crazy holiday!

4th of July holds dear memories for me. My parents bought a summer cabin about 1.5 hrs from San Francisco in a redwood forest setting, in a resort community along the Russian River. Every 4th of July was a big party there! There would be a fishing contest in the morning (and I won many, many 1sts in "Most Bluegill" "Biggest Bluegill", and sometimes "Biggest Catfish" and "Most Catfish", and I think I got a prize for most/biggest "Carp" too! :)

There was a cross-country running contest first thing in the morning too but I wasn't involved in those at all.

At noon the swimming and canoe races would be held...I didn't enter those though I swam fine and we had a canoe too, but I wasn't competitive in swimming--there were lots and lots of people who took swimming classes at their schools so I wouldn't dare enter. What FUN to watch the show though!! :D All of the screaming and yelling!! :D

After the races, both side of the beach "The Sunny Side" and "The Rocky Side" would all get together for the epic tug of war with enough room for about 25 people on each side! SUCH FUN!! Everyone had a great time and it was always a very even match! (ROCKY SIDE FOR THE WIN, WOO WOO WOO!!!!)

As the afternoon crept into the scene, the annual 4th of July BBQ and Weinie Roast would start to be assembled and as the sun began to fall, all of the dozens of families would come down from their cabins, washed and dressed after a day at the beach. The smell of grilling hamburgers and hotdogs was intoxicating!! My mom and dad would take my 3 brothers and me down to the beach to where our umbrella was (everyone in Summer Home Park had their own "spot" for an umbrella which stayed for the summer) and then we'd walk over to the line which took us to the grill for our choice of food and then we could dig out our soda from the huge metal basin full of ice and drinks. There was a fire too, if you wanted to roast your own weinie but they had cooked ones ready from the grill too. Then we'd take our food back to our umbrella and enjoy our lovely feasts, chatting with our friends and watching all of the fun going on around us.

In earlier years, when when event was not banned due to fire danger, the evening light would fade and then we would have the fireworks show! SUCH FUN! SUCH EXCITEMENT for bitty little kids like me and my brothers! :D Every family would get fireworks and we would set ours off and then go around to see other family's fireworks too. We would have fun little fireworks for the kids too, like Black Snakes www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYytdZuV47M and fun, colorful spinner ones and sparklers too...such a GRAND TIME!!

Finally all of the festivities would be over on the beach and we would go back to our cabin. And then, as the last fun activity, there would be a movie down at the "Center", where there was an amphitheater and a special film played....and MY DAD was the guy who brought the movies to the park for each Friday and Saturday presentation! AND *I* got to help dad pick out the movies every summer, it was a great time! For 4th of July, dad always picked a fun adventure movie like "Jason and the Argonauts" or "Mysterious Island" or maybe "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" or something like that. Dad would be the one running the projector when I was little, and we we all sit next to the projector...Dad...me...then Mom...and then my brothers, and we had blankets spread across us that mom had made. It was so much fun. What wonderful memories.

Thank you, Jenny, for the chance to bring up these wonderful memories. My parents were so generous and loving to provide us with a great place for our summer weekends when we were kids. How very lucky we were. I am happy to say that I always recognized how special it was to have a summer cabin. I thanked them so very many times through the years and it was really nice to see that I made them feel good for understanding how cool it was for us kids.

Oh it sounds as if you had a wonderful childhood remembering all those amazing things you did, especially on 4th July!!! I'm so glad that my simple blog has brought your happy memories to mind. I look back on my childhood with very fond memories - my parents did the best they could to ensure my brother and I had the best of childhoods. I was so lucky to have them as my parents as they always made sure I knew how much I was loved. I have continued with that with my kids, because I know how important it is.

I just love those black snake fireworks - they just fascinate me.

Thank you so much for your well wishes< Jenny! We had a blast! Rich, my husband participated in the Fourth of July parade and he took 3rd place in the antique car division (he drove a 1974 VW Beetle). I really need to post some pictures!