It is the Fourth Of July weekend. I should be planning something nice, like a family picnic. Oh wait, that was last week. There is no family around. I have no date, no boat and no dock. Poor me. I will be tortured again this fourth. My street runs parallel to Long Island Sound. The small cottages are rented to young people who love a good weekend party. I will listen to motorcycles running up and down the road. I will smell beer and hamburgers...at other people's picnics.
I sure hope that Don gets relocated here soon so I can have some family around to share a holiday with.
Listening and smelling other people's picnics brings flashbacks of Fourth Of July celebrations past. I am remembering sitting on my father's car as a preschooler, watching the fireworks shot out over Lake Erie. The day was filled with ice cream and watermelon and corn on the cob. I am in my bathing suit....same suit I spend the entire summer in. I am free to swim any time without parental supervision. I know how to swim. The water is shallow. It is a delight to be young , light on my feet, and free to swim out as far as I want to. There is a "stand" at the end of the colony where my parents had a cottage. For a dime, I could buy my favorite treat: a creamcicle
When I was older, my parents and my aunts and uncles had picnics together in my aunt and uncle's back yard. They had a willow tree in the back yard. I watched the caterpillars rain down on their silk threads. Fascinating, but I didn't want to sit under that tree. In the evening, the kids...my cousins...had sparklers.
Another Fourth of July. I am older and dating the man I would marry soon. His family had a picnic with steak...and later lots of fireworks. My in laws were always very nice to me. I could never understand mother in law jokes. My mother in law was more of a mother to me than my own mother. I ate at their house often. After I had my own home , I realized how expensive I was to have around at mealtime. My father in law never said a word about the cost. Dad, I don't think you ever got the credit you deserved.
I should do something with this weekend. There is no one I want to spend it with. Perhaps I will go to the movies....or pack up my paints and head out somewhere to make a watercolor painting. What I probably will do is stay home in the backyard and read a book. ..maybe pull some weeds.
I sure hope that Don gets relocated here soon so I can have some family around to share a holiday with.
Listening and smelling other people's picnics brings flashbacks of Fourth Of July celebrations past. I am remembering sitting on my father's car as a preschooler, watching the fireworks shot out over Lake Erie. The day was filled with ice cream and watermelon and corn on the cob. I am in my bathing suit....same suit I spend the entire summer in. I am free to swim any time without parental supervision. I know how to swim. The water is shallow. It is a delight to be young , light on my feet, and free to swim out as far as I want to. There is a "stand" at the end of the colony where my parents had a cottage. For a dime, I could buy my favorite treat: a creamcicle
When I was older, my parents and my aunts and uncles had picnics together in my aunt and uncle's back yard. They had a willow tree in the back yard. I watched the caterpillars rain down on their silk threads. Fascinating, but I didn't want to sit under that tree. In the evening, the kids...my cousins...had sparklers.
Another Fourth of July. I am older and dating the man I would marry soon. His family had a picnic with steak...and later lots of fireworks. My in laws were always very nice to me. I could never understand mother in law jokes. My mother in law was more of a mother to me than my own mother. I ate at their house often. After I had my own home , I realized how expensive I was to have around at mealtime. My father in law never said a word about the cost. Dad, I don't think you ever got the credit you deserved.
I should do something with this weekend. There is no one I want to spend it with. Perhaps I will go to the movies....or pack up my paints and head out somewhere to make a watercolor painting. What I probably will do is stay home in the backyard and read a book. ..maybe pull some weeds.
Labels: Fourth of July
posted by gardenbug at Saturday, July 02, 2011
3 Comments:
I still have a hard time, even after nearly 10 years, with "celebrating" the Fourth of July in the middle of winter. Instead, I've set up a couple of small table top Christmas trees and we're having Christmas in July. Christmas Day here feels more like the Fourth of July. Definitely the "Land Down Under."
Hi Elle:
I completely agree with you on mother-in-laws. My mother-in-law never said a bad word about me. When I got divorced I still had dinner with her about once a week. That gave me the opportunity to make sure she was okay and to give my molars a workout (she was a horrible cook). In recent years my visits at home and at a convalescent home were bumped up to 2-3 visits a week. I retained visitation rights after my divorce! Sadly, my mother-in-law died about a year ago. I still miss here and think of her often.
I miss my mother in law, too. and...she was a wonderful German cook. She made saurbrauten to die for. More importantly, she was a good ear. I could talk to her and she listened and was interested in what I said. My own mom never saw or heard me at all...not until the last year of her life.
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