A Favorite Fourth with Family

With holidays come traditions. With the blending of families, traditions meld and vary. Yet, families remain at the core of traditions. My husband grew up on a farm where holidays and celebrations were mostly low key as there were always chores to do. The story also goes that the family didn't have much money for lots of gifts or extras. Yet raising animals, fruits and vegetables never left them go hungry. Meanwhile I grew up in the city the daughter of middle income parents. Holidays were often observed and gifts were often exchanged at a modest rate.

In the 23 years of marriage we've shared, I'm not sure just how many times we've let the long holiday weekends slip by with barely an acknowledgement. Christmas and Easter always get noticed. Thanks to a bit of fascination with fireworks, my husband almost always made sure we got a good view of the city's celebration on Independence Day, the Fourth of July.

For all three days this on this holiday weekend, we really squeezed in just about all you can imagine or expect. On Friday, my husband cooked up some T-Bone steaks, boiled some corn on the cob, and chopped up some watermelon. You don't see T-Bones cross our grill often so this was a special meal for the three of us. Then Mike and I made our way down to Parkview Field to watch the free Fort Wayne Philharmonic Pops performance before a standing room only crowd. What a relaxing pleasure to share a table down the right field line with other community members. As the orchestra finished their musical selections for the evening, fireworks lit the downtown sky.

Saturday found all three of us headed to Indianapolis to spend the day with our "adopted" family, the Metheny's. We ate, we visited, we drifted around the pool, and we even met a woman whose ancestors are from Slovakia! It certainly is a small world. At the end of the day, we drove north back towards the "Fort." Before landing in our New Haven home, we detoured to park in the lot of my former workplace, Associated Churches of Fort Wayne and Allen County. From here we could watch another batch of fireworks being shot off of one of the few skyscrapers. After watching the colorful display, visiting with a former co-worker, and getting bit by a few mosquitoes, we finally headed east to our humble abode.

As with most Sundays, we started out going to church. Since we had spent most all of our prior weekend relaxing with family and friends, it was time to get to work on some home chores. Aaron took to taking some spare parts off the original Scout in the backyard. It's headed to the junkyard soon. He also cut the grass while Mike trimmed. Meanwhile, I got to borrow the neighbor's electric clippers to give our eight large bushes a major whack back. When the day began to wane, our friends, the Millers, made burgers and hot dogs for all the neighbors. It was a welcome break from the work. Afterwards, my guys cleaned up the mess from the bushes. Still with daylight left, Aaron headed to another set of neighbors to learn how to play Euchre, a card game brought to northern Indiana from German immigrants (I believe). I came inside to keep the laundry flowing, and Mike installed some fans in the basement to help it dry out after a very wet June.

The weekend is quickly coming to an end. I look back and see how beautiful it was. Family surrounded us. We had each other. We had our friends in Indianapolis who have welcomed us into their clan as if we always belonged. We have our neighbors who welcome us to their porch. We have our work families, and we have our church families. We visit, we eat, we drink, we abide. We love.