Eagles Wings

The 4th of July is almost here....in the past this holiday was one of the biggest in US history...it is still up there to my way of thinking.
The best 4th I ever had was one we celebrated when we were visiting Iowa and Alan's family...
It was hot as only July can be in the Midwest and humid..I felt drier when I was in the shower than out of it if you know what I mean....the 3rd of July, the hometown had a parade which we all went to as one of the nieces was in it. People were lined up on the street, the street was decorated with red,white and blue bunting and flags flew everywhere...the high school band played patriotic music, the boy and girl scouts walked by with their leaders, the local Grange had a float..there was a feeling of excitement, patriotic pride and joy.

That evening we sat outside in the backyard and enjoyed the fireflies.

Here is a postcard of the downtown, circa early 1900s. I have a nice size collection of Independence postcards.


The next day, the 4th was the big day...his parents,and we drove up to another little town as they were known for great celebrations and later, fireworks. Alan and I can't remember the name of the town now...it might have been Aurora. Being a Californian girl, I had read about small town celebrations but had never experienced one.
I couldn't figure out why many of the women were taking off their right shoes and putting them in a huge pile. A crowd encircled the pile, when a group of young men and boys ran and started going through the shoes..shoes were flying everywhere while each man tried to find his lady's shoe, run and quickly put it on her foot. The first one completely shod won.

Another game was the greased pig contest...this is very popular today too and the teams have names like Bacon Bits, Pork Rinds, and the Pig Pirates..then I think it was individual kids, mainly boys, running down trying to capture a slippery porker.
(I was reading people are protesting this sport as the pigs can be hurt...I can understand that..not fair when its 4 against one in the team games)
I don't believe any pigs were caught in the one against one game..the pigs won!

Of course, there was lots of food...
We ate grilled hamburgers,hot dogs, potato salad, 3 bean salad, pea salad, lots of pie..(oh, pie..there was a pie eating contest too) and as evening approached, we found our places on the lawn for the fireworks...and what fireworks they were...the display lasted over half an hour, and it was wonderful....we went home afterwards, tired, sunburnt and to my dismay found my first and only chigger bite.

I found this very cute little pie eating contest for my readers, http://www.microprizes.com/mp32.htm
enjoy!