Independence Day 2012

Teaching is over for the year, so I finally have some free time to write again!

Today I thought I'd tell you how my Fourth of July went this year. It's always been one of my favorite holidays, especially in the days when Nan (my grandma) lived by the Arkansas River. Then the whole family would get together for fried chicken and pie, and at twilight we'd get out the sparklers, poppers and Black Cats, progressing to fireworks at dusk.

This year our celebration of Independence Day began two weeks earlier on June 21. This was the start of the Fortnight for Freedom, two weeks of prayer and education for Religious Freedom, currently threatened in the Catholic Church by the HHS Mandate. On the 22nd we had a Mass at our cathedral with the Archbishop, to celebrate the feast day of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, martyrs for the faith. Later in the Fortnight, we had a Rally at the convention center in OKC, where we had lots of speakers and thousands of participants, both Catholic and Protestant.


On the morning of the Fourth, we all headed to downtown Edmond for the parade (except my sister, she was sick with a cold). We set out our lawn chairs in some shade, and watched the crowds go by. I think the most popular color this year was red, but there were plenty of cute little girls in blue skirts with white stars. We all wore our blue religious freedom T-shirts.

Policemen on motorcycles drove by, and the floats and marchers began to come by. On the exterior at least, I had a lot more fun than my little bro, waving at all the people that rode by. He just turned twelve, so he's concerned about cool, I guess...youth is wasted on the young.

Anyway, a military marching band came by, which was really cool (the National Guard, I think?).

One of my pet peeves about parades is that it always seems like marching bands start playing after they've already passed me...come on, can't you guys play perpetually?

Later we had the marching bands from Memorial, North, and Santa Fe (Edmond's main high schools). One of them did play Yankee Doodle on the flutes, which I thought was really cool. You don't hear Yankee Doodle much anymore, and it's such a fun song!

Each of them also had an assortment of dancers, cheerleaders, flag holders, or color guard. The color guard was cool, because they had those fake guns that you learn to drill with (Cadet Kelly, anyone?) The cheerleaders were kind of annoying, because instead of chanting patriotic things, they would just do things for their school...Bulldogs, Bulldogs! etc.

Let's see, moving on we had firetrucks, the bomb squad, the tactical team, all in their scary black vans, and with their sirens blaring. I hope I never actually see them out on the street...

There were several groups of men and women dressed in the uniforms of past American wars. Men in blue coats and tricorner hats carried their muskets and the flag from the American Revolution, a wagon came by with Union soldiers in blue uniforms...and a few floats later, Confederates in brown and gray outfits....guess they didn't want any reenactments today. Finally there were men in gaiters and round helmets followed by a jeep with women in berets from World War II. They even had a WWII ambulance! Two floats also supported huge models of aircraft carriers and submarines.

Of course, there were truckloads of real veterans from the Korean and Vietnam wars, as well as big vans of men ready to ship off to the Middle East. Everyone stood and cheered for them. I hope that they all got to spend a wonderful Fourth of July with their families.

The Boy Scouts made a good showing this year, as they always do. Troops from all over town join together to carry flags, though the boys from our parish had their own floats with tents set up. In the aftermath of dozens of boys supporting a flag about as big as a house, I felt kind of sorry for the Girl Scouts that followed. Really though, they didn't have many flags or anything patriotic. They had a bunch of signs celebrating their own 100th anniversary.

The Shriners always put on a big show at the parade, with all kinds of go carts and motorcycles. They race around, squealing tires and making the kids on the curb scream. It kind of starts to go on after a while, as more and more groups of them drive by...but the police that do it too have sirens, so that's fun. (Nan was glad she didn't put in her hearing aids today)

Lots of gymnastics groups did back-flips and cartwheels down the street. Mom was constantly afraid they were going to fall on their heads on the concrete. Several churches marched or had floats. Life Church wore rainbow clown wigs for some reason. The Knights of Columbus marched in full regalia despite the heat, carrying a banner for religious freedom. We waved to our friends wearing the same blue shirts, and the pastor of St. Monica's, Edmond's other Catholic Church.

Several different groups had floats and great music, but I was missing the usual Jazzercise float...they always do dances . Also absent was the Shakespeare in the Park group; they used to wear Elizabethan costumes and have sword fights.

James and I were about to despair of ever seeing one of our favorite groups, but they finally came towards the end. What could be more American than this:

Star Wars

The guys from  Jedi OKC have the greatest costumes, really elaborately made. I can't blame Boba Fett for wearing shorts, it was getting pretty hot out there. On the other hand, that red-robed Imperial Guard carrying an American flag on his pike is kind of terrifying. Anyway, we were glad that Darth Vader, the Jedi, and stormtroopers showed up to celebrate our country.

After that we headed home, and Dad and Nan headed to Tulsa to see the rest of my family. The rest of us already had plans, and Claire was sick. Colin came over and made quesadillas (yay America) that were delicious. The rest of the day we went swimming, caught a few minutes of The Patriot and 1776 on TV, and played a game of Taboo. Then Colin made spaghetti for dinner (hey, the Mafia is a big party of this country). When Dad and Nan got back, some of us left in the truck to go watch the fireworks. Claire and Mom stayed at home to watch Independence Day. We parked on the UCO campus, where plenty of jerks were taking up several parking spots, like they do every year...you'd think that people would try and be nice to their countrymen one day of the year... We waited in the truck bed for about 45 minutes, and then the lights in the parking lot turned off.

The fireworks this year topped last year's. They were really incredible, combining my old favorites with several new innovations. My favorite kinds are the ones that explode, then whiz off in whirling patterns as if they have a mind of their own, like big golden beetles. I also love the ones that look like big golden fountains, or willow trees. Finally, I love the kind that just kind of explode in a huge flash of flame. Yay for throwing bombs in the sky!

I thought that what was new this year was a kind that exploded in a five or six-point star shape (more like a starfish shape) and then had blue or pink flashes at each point. Anyway it was beautiful, and the show was synchronized to a radio broadcast. My favorite parts were the synchronization to "Call Me Maybe" and to the end of Tchaikovsky's Firebird suite.

There's a reason why UCO's show is among the Top 10 in the USA.

The show was partially overshadowed by the HOUR-LONG DRIVE we had to make to get out of that parking lot, down the street, and headed in a direction towards home. Seriously, this is usually a fifteen minute drive. People need to be courteous, and not cut in line, drive on the wrong side of the road, or block entire lanes. Where were the police directing traffic??? Seriously.



Rant over, it was a really great Independence Day. God has really blessed our country, and I hope we can work to keep it that way. Leave comments telling me about your favorite Fourth of July traditions!