July 4 is a wondrous holiday, and can set the stage for further detonations.
Joseph Mackereth
Let me explain why I am in love with the 4th of July. It’s a life-long love affair and one I don’t see ending. The holiday has some serious hoopla about it and I love a celebration of epic proportions. I mean, Christmas is lovely but a family gathering around an indoor tree opening gifts pales in comparison to an entire community getting together for the day ending with a spectacular fireworks display. Am I right?
July 4th first convinced me of its merits when I was a child. Big groups of people gathered for cookouts. There is practically nothing cooked over charcoal that I won’t eat, I love cookouts so much. I think I’d eat a charcoal grilled sock if you basted it properly. Everyone brought a side dish, so you had a choice of like 14 different macaroni and cheese casseroles alone.
I will judge the merit of your character by your macaroni and cheese. Even as a tadpole in central Virginia, I knew enough to look for Mrs. Davenport’s Pyrex casserole dish and avoid some others, bless their hearts. There was one woman, who shall remain unnamed, in our church who went through a raisin phase and put raisins in everything. I remember the day she showed up to the church social with raisins in her collard greens. You would have thought she’d walked up to Jesus himself and smacked him in the face by the uproar. Collard greens are not “experimental.”
My childhood 4th of July was a whole day of delicious food, running around with sparklers, getting a little sunburned, playing with friends and then watching what I now know was a truly modest firework display but then I thought it was absolutely amazing. Actually, no matter how budget-minded a firework event is, I will still adore it. What is not to like about sparkling, colorful magic? Although as I get older and meet more people with PTSD from Iraq and Afghanistan, I think omitting the “booms” and noises from the display is a fine idea.
Then came my young professional days and I saw a truly impressive fireworks display that everyone should experience once in their lives. I am talking about the all-day event in Washington, D.C. on the National Mall. Oh my, words cannot contain that experience. Music and dancing, performers that you could never afford to go see at a concert all for free, a sense of national unity and goodwill, fabulous food smells from vendors, and then as dusk settles, the most impressive, lengthy fireworks display I have ever oohed-and-awed over. Amazing. Every other firework display I’ve seen pales in comparison. Every other July 4th is lightweight compared to that one. That is, until one very special Fourth.
Being five and having my heart and mind opened to the wonders of being awed laid the groundwork for my best Fourth ever. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting in the back seat of a pink Cadillac convertible with my very best friend, in the Tunnel of Vows at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, getting married by none other than Charolette Richards herself—the legendary Queen of wedding officiants, having married hundreds of thousands of couples including a boat load of celebrities, even Sinatra—at the drive-through window, on the 4th of July. The fireworks were all within that Cadillac but they were real, they were ours, and even more magnificent than any from childhood.
The story above first appeared in our July/August 2021 issue. For more like it subscribe today or log in with your active BRC+ Membership. Thank you for your support!