Happy July 4th!

We are celebrating by trying to stay cool - which seems like what everyone is doing. (And, of course, by charring some burgers on the grill and splurging on 'fruit pizza' but that's pretty much a given for the 4th.)

My son celebrated over the weekend by entering a 10k race - for which he received a trophy which he was embarrassed about.

My Arizona family is staying inside (and maybe being outside splashing in the pool) because it is supposed to be an amazing 112 degrees!

Which brings me back to reminiscences of Independence Days past. We used to live in small town, rural Alaska - and NOBODY does July 4th like small town, rural Alaska. For the whole month of June local high school girls launch a fundraising campaign to pay for it all - and for the honor of 'Queen' of the festivities. They run raffles, sponsor rummage sales, sell cookies door to door and, mostly, make and sell lunches at street-side booths set up in the town. This is a big deal. Everyone donates foodstuffs, the cable TV company posts the daily menus, friends and family work the booth - and the whole town 'does lunch' with the Queens. There is usually something like $30,000 raised - so you can believe me when I say the whole town does lunch.

The 4th dawned every year with a race, of course, which we always slept through. But we always went out for the parade! It started with the volunteer fire department guys running every vehicle they had down Main Street with sirens blaring. Not to be outdone, the police department followed suit. Kids marched in costume, the VFW marched in formation with the flag, the local grocery store brought together a Boom Box Band and marched in force with help from the local radio station who broadcast the Boom Box music. One year a big cruise ship was in port for the day and they added their dancing girls (costumed and plumed appropriately - or maybe, actually, just slightly in-appropriately!) and their uniformed waiters. Some townspeople made floats on their pick-up trucks; the Little League All Star Team rode on one, as did the Head Start kids. The Klingit Indian tribe put forth costumed dancers. For some years there was actually a small horse on the island - and the little guy was decked out every year to march in the parade. One of the construction workers was good on stilts - and dressed up in a long-legged Uncle Sam costume every year. The Queen and her court had a 'float' and if anyone in town had a fancy convertible, it was pressed into service to carry some poor sheepish-looking Grand Master.

The biggest thing was to march in the parade and throw candy to the crowd.

After the parade there were food booths to visit - much fundraising happens on this holiday. We had to have Catholic Hamburgers and Sorority Pie and Nurse's Root Beer. When Todd was young - but not too young - he would run around with his friends to the food and games booths and we'd dole out a dollar at a time so he had to keep coming back to us to 'check in' with us. There were bottle-tossing booths and balloons and trinkets to buy. One year the teachers put on a dunking booth - which was, as you can imagine, very popular. Great stuff.

And in the afternoon were the races. The toddler races were the most fun - and the boat races were the most dangerous. There was log-rolling in the harbor, egg tossing in the streets, toilet paper relaying on City Hall lawn.

And then in the evening (LATE in the evening - it being so far north) there were fireworks. Big booming ones. Lots of them.

Wonderful.

Hope you have a great holiday!