FAMILY FOURTH OF JULY

6-5-09...FAMILY FOURTH OF JULY

The 4th of July when I was a kid was one of our family times. Oh we had so much fun. It was my Grandpas (Papa) birthday so our celebrations were really a birthday picnic for him.
The whole clan was all still around then. Aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and whoever else happened to want to come along. Sometimes we had them in one of our yards. Most times we went to a summer swimming and picnic place in our area called Turner Bend. The water was clean and the surrounding area was nice. No one was there having drinking parties and throwing trash around. We would see friends and meet new friends. There would always be someone there who had moved out of the area to different States. They always came back for family time where they grew up.
The morning of the 4th we got up bright and early and packed our cars for the trip. Everyone brought things like a pot luck. Picnic foods. Someone would load up a big no#2 wash tub usually Daddy if I remember right. In the tub there would be a couple cases of coke. We went by the ice house in Ozark. Daddy would jump up on the platform and buy a big block of ice that had been chipped up with a big ice pick. It wasn't a plastic bag like now it was cloth. The man at the ice house would help Daddy carry the bag of ice and dump it in the tub over the cokes in the turtle hull of the car and we were off.
When we got there we found a spot to put our quilts down and get things out of the cars and laid out on rocks. The tub would be carried out and sat in the shade. By the time we got ready to drink them they were ice cold as the ice melted.
Anyone who wanted to took a swim in the cool water. I've always been afraid of water so I sat in the shallow part at the bank and got my butt wet and that was about it for me unless I got splashed. Brenda usually stayed with me. I don't remember fire works but one time and that was at home after dark. There were no boats on the water just people floating on their backs or taking a leisurely swim. Everyone watched out for everyones kids. It was a wonderful Family day. We took my Grandpa and did that for a lot of years. When some of us got older and Papa wasn't able to go every year everyone kind of went their own way and it stopped. The 4th was never the same anymore for me. We knew what we were celebrating then and I know now. The 4th is a solemn day for me now. It is a day to Honor our Veterans and be grateful for all who have fought for our Freedom then and now. I appreciate and honor them all so much and that is what the Fourth of July means to me.
I will never forget those wonderful times of family together on the creek though. I can almost taste that ice cold coke that Daddy took out of the ice and opened for me. Also those sandwiches with fresh tomatoes and green onions from Daddies garden. Potato salad and coleslaw and pork and beans and banana pudding. Oh my goodness I'm about to starve to death!!!! YEP!!