July Times
The forth of July used to bring us to my grandmother's house to her backyard for family fun. Usually they would already be outside with the grill going by the time we got there around noon. So, we would guess that my grandparents had been up at the crack of dawn as usual preparing food for us. I think that my grandfather loved to do this but my grandmother would probably have chosen to sleep in if she could. But, knowing him he would just bug her asking where this was and that was and she would end up getting out of bed going down the steps to find what he needed.
We had a small family or at least a few of them would show up for the picnic. It just consisted of my 3 cousins, my aunt, her husband, my parents, and my sister, brother and myself. On a very rare occasion my uncle might show up with whoever he was dating at the moment. But, it was rare to see him since he lived about 150 miles away most of the time I was growing up. The fourth also filled the air with the usual family arguments of who got what piece of meat and whose turn it was to drag out the chairs from the basement.
Nobody really liked going into the basement because it was always filled with spiders and the ceiling was so low that by the time you were 8 yrs old you had to bend down to walk in there. Usually the chairs were all the way in the back and it was dark and spooky and none of us kids liked going in there alone or even going in there at all. So, we would all try to look busy doing other things when the call came from my grandfather to get the chairs and we would hope that one of the grown ups would volunteer to do it. Most of the time it worked they thought we were having fun playing on the swings and helping drag out the food so they didn't bother us. But, there were a lot of times when they didn't care what we were doing or how much fun we were trying to have on the swings and two or three of us got the job of getting the chairs and the table umbrellas.
Jazz music always filled the air in the backyard too. We listened to all the greats on the Radio from Dizzy to Ella. And if you dared changed the radio station to another station with something else my grandfather would almost have a heart attack on the spot and it would end up back to jazz anyway. Not that jazz was so bad but being a kid and having to listen to it or we would say back then, suffer through hours and hours and hours of it on every holiday wore out a ten year old ears at the time. We really didn't appreciate it then. But, now every once in a while I will put on the jazz station and just remember the time.
After everyone filled paper plates to the brim with food and our plastic cups were all filled with punch and we ate until we looked like we were going to pop the clean up began and someone had to put the chairs away.
We would sit and talk for a while in the house or sitting on the grass and then everyone would go home. We never once went to see the fireworks. My mom always said that it would be too crowed and if you didn't get there really early you probably wouldn't get to see that much anyway. Luckily, we didn't live too far from the marina and we used to see the ones that they shot high in the sky from the steps of the apartment building two doors down from us. My sister and I would stand on the steps and enjoy what would could see and then come inside and tell my mom all about them when they were done.
I have never to this day been to see the fireworks every year for years all we had to do is open up the front door and watch from the porch or from an apartment building almost next door. Then 30 years later we moved to my grandmother's house after she passed away and our free show was over. She lived further from the marina and the trees were too tall for us to see anything so we just listened to the booms in the sky and the light that we could see from time to time and watched them on TV.
Last year, where we are now is closer to the marina again and we really got a good show just looking out of the window and standing on the porch. We thought it was going to be the same this year but it was sort of foggy and they were not shooting them as high as last year and I don't think that the show was that good judging by the conversations that people had walking back early. So, we once again watched them on the TV.
Gone are the days that we all gathered in my grandmother's backyard arguing over who was going to go in the spooky basement to get the chairs. My grandmother always said when we were in the middle of arguing about how whose turn it was she would stand in the middle of us and say that we should be good because one day we will miss her when she was gone and we would miss all of this what we had on that day.
She was very right. Now, that I have my own son I miss those times with her. I miss her, the smiles, the laughs, the dancing, the conversations, the house, the backyard, and even the spooky basement.
We had a small family or at least a few of them would show up for the picnic. It just consisted of my 3 cousins, my aunt, her husband, my parents, and my sister, brother and myself. On a very rare occasion my uncle might show up with whoever he was dating at the moment. But, it was rare to see him since he lived about 150 miles away most of the time I was growing up. The fourth also filled the air with the usual family arguments of who got what piece of meat and whose turn it was to drag out the chairs from the basement.
Nobody really liked going into the basement because it was always filled with spiders and the ceiling was so low that by the time you were 8 yrs old you had to bend down to walk in there. Usually the chairs were all the way in the back and it was dark and spooky and none of us kids liked going in there alone or even going in there at all. So, we would all try to look busy doing other things when the call came from my grandfather to get the chairs and we would hope that one of the grown ups would volunteer to do it. Most of the time it worked they thought we were having fun playing on the swings and helping drag out the food so they didn't bother us. But, there were a lot of times when they didn't care what we were doing or how much fun we were trying to have on the swings and two or three of us got the job of getting the chairs and the table umbrellas.
Jazz music always filled the air in the backyard too. We listened to all the greats on the Radio from Dizzy to Ella. And if you dared changed the radio station to another station with something else my grandfather would almost have a heart attack on the spot and it would end up back to jazz anyway. Not that jazz was so bad but being a kid and having to listen to it or we would say back then, suffer through hours and hours and hours of it on every holiday wore out a ten year old ears at the time. We really didn't appreciate it then. But, now every once in a while I will put on the jazz station and just remember the time.
After everyone filled paper plates to the brim with food and our plastic cups were all filled with punch and we ate until we looked like we were going to pop the clean up began and someone had to put the chairs away.
We would sit and talk for a while in the house or sitting on the grass and then everyone would go home. We never once went to see the fireworks. My mom always said that it would be too crowed and if you didn't get there really early you probably wouldn't get to see that much anyway. Luckily, we didn't live too far from the marina and we used to see the ones that they shot high in the sky from the steps of the apartment building two doors down from us. My sister and I would stand on the steps and enjoy what would could see and then come inside and tell my mom all about them when they were done.
I have never to this day been to see the fireworks every year for years all we had to do is open up the front door and watch from the porch or from an apartment building almost next door. Then 30 years later we moved to my grandmother's house after she passed away and our free show was over. She lived further from the marina and the trees were too tall for us to see anything so we just listened to the booms in the sky and the light that we could see from time to time and watched them on TV.
Last year, where we are now is closer to the marina again and we really got a good show just looking out of the window and standing on the porch. We thought it was going to be the same this year but it was sort of foggy and they were not shooting them as high as last year and I don't think that the show was that good judging by the conversations that people had walking back early. So, we once again watched them on the TV.
Gone are the days that we all gathered in my grandmother's backyard arguing over who was going to go in the spooky basement to get the chairs. My grandmother always said when we were in the middle of arguing about how whose turn it was she would stand in the middle of us and say that we should be good because one day we will miss her when she was gone and we would miss all of this what we had on that day.
She was very right. Now, that I have my own son I miss those times with her. I miss her, the smiles, the laughs, the dancing, the conversations, the house, the backyard, and even the spooky basement.
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