JULY 4TH CELEBRATIONS

All across America, people celebrated the Fourth of July last Tuesday. I was a little disappointed at the lack of hoopla here in our new home. I'm accustomed to a lot of activities on the Fouruth, but here, the fireworks display was on Saturday before the Fourth.

The county we lived in ten years ago, went all out -- hosting a festival, dance and other activities at the fairgrounds.along with a splendid steam engine parade. The island we just left enjoyed a golf cart parade with veterans showcased, as well as the Sunshine Craft Festival before fireworks that evening.

But this time, we had to settle for a simple reading of the Declaration of Independence. My Indivisible chapter hosted it. Maybe a hundred people showed up, with a local author giving a quick review of Georgia's three representatives. George Walton was only twenty-seven when he signed while Lyman Hall was fifty-three. Both men later served as governors of the state and had counties named for them. (During Hall's term, the legislation creating the University of Georgia was passed: it is the first university in the country chartered by a state government.) Button Gwinnett, alas, had failed at business and farming before getting into politics. He might have done well politicking except that he died about a year after signing the Declaration. Seems he got into an argument with another notable Georgian that led to a duel, and they shot each other. McIntosh survived his wound; Gwinnett did not.

After the brief history lesson, several members (along with their children and grandchildren) each read a sentence or two of the document. When it began describing King George's terrible actions, I couldn't help but think they sounded awfully familiar. A lot like what this President has been doing, as a matter of fact! I later heard that NPR's tweeting of the entire declaration outraged this President's supporters who thought NPR was maligning him.

Finally, three naturalized Americans gave short summaries on what being an American meant to them. I was reminded again that all of us, unless we are pure native Americans, were immigrants or are descended from immigrants.

The gathering lasted less than an hour and was held in the lovely yard of a local restaurant. As far as I know, it was the only acknowledgement of how America came to be.

Here are some photos, courtesy of my guy.

This is the crowd gathering:

Some people had to sit on the ledge:

Others had to sit on the pavers:

This is the beginning of the line of readers:

If I remember correctly, this was the last reader:

And I believe this is one of the naturalized Americans:

INDEPENDENCE DAY

The county has been readying for the Fourth of July for weeks. On the island, we will have our own celebration that naturally includes fireworks. But other things are going on, too. Here are some of the old cars showing up:

A close-up of the first one:

This little biplane takes passengers on rides over the area:

Not to forget the ships that have made our port so busy, here's a distant shot of three of them. You can barely see the tops over the trees:

And here is one going out (the one on the left) and one coming in (the one on the right);

Oh, how busy we are! Especially with the tourists already loaded up the streets and restaurants in preparation for the holiday!

FOURTH OF JULY

Both the places we've lived in the most recent years, have gone all out for the Fourth.

Here, they hold the Sunshine Festival around the holiday, with activities including bands and food and a run. And of course fireworks at dark. They close off the pier and shoot them over the water. People sit on the sidewalks and lawns and under the roof at the Casino to watch them explode. Last year, they had patriotic music playing as the fireworks exploded, and it was wonderful!

Up in our north Georgia town, there is an annual steam engine parade in the morning, All kinds of steam engines, including tractors and calliopes, participate. They give out free earplugs because they're noisy! People line the streets to watch. Then they have a festival in the park afterward. Finally, they set their fireworks off at dark. It's always great fun!

Wishing everyone can safely enjoy fireworks on the Fourth of July and hoping everyone drives carefully!

FIREWORKS

We went down to the pier in the Village for their fireworks display. It was wonderful, as usual, with the fireworks exploding directly overhead. This year they added music to the display, and I couldn't believe how much it enhanced the spectacular! Here are a few pix my guy took:

Hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth!

AFTER THE FOURTH

We hung out on the Fourth of July and mostly stayed in, away from all the people on the island. It's only twelve miles long but it was packed with tourists and other visitors for the weekend.

We had 800 entrants in the annual 5k run/1k walk they hold every year. I thought they started at seven a.m. and would be through by our usual walk time. Nope. We went out, ran into them, had to stand back while men, women, mothers pushing jogging strollers, fathers running with kids, and what looked like a couple of military squads from one of the nearby forts (One had the sergeant running along singing cadence, poor guy!) rushed by.

We finally caught a break, got through them, and walked on down the road. To the park where the finish line was. Naturally, the whole group came up just as we got there so we had to wait again.

But we did finally make it to village and the Sunshine Festival held in conjunction with the other Fourth activities. Here are a few pix of this arts and crafts fair held in the park:

These are some of the sidewalk tents. We got there as they were getting ready to open so not too many people were around, thank goodness.

This artist booth puts it up front on his sign. Buy his paintings now while you can still afford him!

Don't know if you can tell much about them, but the greenish figures are those of a sailor at the wheel and (on the right) the pirate captain peering through his spyglass.  Made me want to cackle and say, "Argggh, my hearties!"

After that, we came home and stayed inside. It was hot and traffic was horrible and there was no way we were going to venture out, not even for the fireworks display. After all, we could hear it from our house!

On the whole, a pretty nice day.