Fourth of July

Independence Day on the 4th of July was one of the great holiday celebrations on Grandma Ada and Grandpa Jack's calendar. All the kids and grandkids gathered at Jack and Ada's house on the 17th fairway of Arizona Country Club. There was a hot grill for hamburgers, potluck salads and side dishes, and homemade rootbeer with Jack stirring the dry-ice-steaming cauldron. The adults visited and watched the littlest ones, the older kids disappeared on the golf course (the world's greatest playground), and in later years there was swimming, after they put the pool in.

As the light failed and the sky grew dark, people began drifting across the golf course in the direction of the clubhouse for the country club fireworks show. We gathered the kids and headed out with other family members, selecting a spot on the soft perfectly-kept grass, keeping the easily-frightened babies with us, and ensuring that our older kids were within sight and with other companionable cousins. The fireworks show usually started at around 8 pm (no daylight saving time in Arizona, thank you very much), a simple series of attractive pyrotechnics that lasted about 30 minutes.

The kids (and adults) oohed and ahhed and the toddlers shrieked at the first thunderous boom, and then buried their faces in our shoulders and hung on for dear life, trembling. Once we could get them to look, they were entranced, although still frightened of the noise. But usually it took a year or two to get them to look. After a few years, the noise was as much of a draw as the sparkling light, as if it were a forbidden pleasure, like playing in the mud.

When it was over, we collected the kids and returned through the drifting smoke and the dark to the lit porch of Jack and Ada's. Only the Thomas kids themselves could pick it out easily from the distant approach and in the dark. But there were no stragglers--it was time for birthday cake, forJack's birthday was July 5th, and this was his party too. So we gathered around the enormous cake, sang happy birthday while Jack smiled diffidently, and then blew out as many candles as were put on the cake.

After the cake, the party broke up. Drowsing children were hurried home to bed; families with older children lingered to visit and play, adults began repackaging leftovers, tossing trash, and taking down tables. The party was over, until next time. And so it was until Jack and Ada sold the house.