Saturday, July 4, 2020

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Fourth of July Memories

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!


Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

It's Saturday Night and the Fourth of July - let's have some Genealogy Fun! If you're reading this on Sunday morning, or even later, it's not too late for you to participate.

1) Think of the best Fourth of July you remember from your childhood.

2) Think of the best Fourth of July you remember from your adulthood.

3) What will you do on the holiday?

4) Write about one, or all, of them on your blog or in Comments to this post, or on Facebook.  Please leave a comment and/or link on this post. 

Here's mine:

1. The best memory I have from my childhood was going over to my father's cousin's house and playing with sparklers and watching firecrackers go off. San Diego County was, and still is, a firecracker/fireworks free county (but many break the law, of course, especially in Chula Vista). My father's cousin's husband, Chuck (we always called him just "Chuck," but his real name was Marshall Beal Chamberlain) bought firecrackers and sparklers from Tijuana (or from someone who snuck them up from Tijuana). And my brother and I got to wave the sparklers around. Chuck and his buddies would shoot off the firecrackers in their enclosed patio and yard. This may not sound like a big deal to you, but it was "forbidden fruit" in the 1950's for this San Diego boy.

The other memory I have is going to my grandparents house on Point Loma and driving along Rosecrans Street in their 1950 Hudson with fireworks going off overhead, fired from the Yacht Club nearby. I never liked being real close to the booms and these were a little too close. 

2) In the 1980s, we often went to Coronado Beach on the 4th of July, sometimes with the girls softball team or the girls Brownie/Girl Scout troop. It was always a "build sandcastles, jump in the waves, try to bodysurf, 
get sunburned, roast hot dogs, burn S'mores" event, and our daughters and their friends enjoyed it tremendously.  For several years, the softball team and coaches (I was the coach, Linda the manager) rode in an open truck in the Coronado 4th of July Parade down Orange Avenue. 

3) The Chula Vista Presbyterian Church is adjacent to the San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista, and every year the Country Club has a fireworks show.  For many years, the church had a congregational picnic on July 4th on the patio outside the Family Life Center, followed by pulling out the lawn chairs and watching the fireworks over the Country Club, which is just several hundred yards to the west.  We have a great view, and it is great fun to see our friends and celebrate the day.  In recent years, we haven't had the picnic, but we still go at about 8 p.m., set up the lawn chairs, and enjoy the fireworks with our friends.  
But not this year!   Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be sitting in the family room at 8:30 p.m. on July 4 watching replays of fireworks from years past, and live fireworks from other cities in the County.


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Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver


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5 comments:

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

Here's mine:

https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2020/07/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-fourth-of.html

Seeds to Tree said...

I'll just write up something quick. In my childhood our backyard was on the border of a big park that held fireworks every year. There was a big parade in town in the morning, normally I marched with my girl scout troop and then a big fire works display literally in our backyard. One year my parents invited a bunch of families for a barbeque, which was extra fun.

As an adult, my husband and I bought a 100 year old house a block away from the town's fireworks. Again, we could see them from our backyard. We had several family barbeques. I sat in my screen porch after the fireworks and watch basically everyone in town walk by and say hi.

Each year on the day of the parade, my husband got up at the crack of dawn. We had a navy blue pick up truck and he drove it in the parade with our kids with other dads in the father/daughter or father/son programs he and the kids were in. I got free time, and because we could walk to the parade route, I'd put out a blanket at 7 AM and go over just in time to see the start of the parade. Neighbors did the same thing so it was a big neighborhood chat time.

We've moved and are no longer near fireworks in town. This year, we'll be eating grilled steaks and watching fireworks or maybe an appropriate holiday movie on TV.

Happy July 4th everyone!

Lacie Madison said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Linda Stufflebean said...

Happy Independence Day to all. Here is mine: https://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2020/07/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-36/

Linda Stufflebean said...

Randy, I remember sparklers, too, from when I lived in Passaic. They were a little scary to a small kid because in addition to being lit up, I remember they made a zzzzzzing sound until they burned down.