BY KCY

This year most of our fourth of Julys will be different. There’ll be no lazy day at the beaches cumulating in a bonfire at night. There’ll be no backyard barbeques where the adults sit around talking while they drink their cold beers and eat their hot dogs and hamburgers from the grill while the kids splash in the pool. There’ll be no firework displays where we gather oohing and ahhing at the reds, greens, whites and blues that light the skies.

At least, there shouldn’t be.

We are living in the time of COVID19, and even if your state has not placed restrictions and/or recommendations on social gatherings, beaches, fireworks displays, I urge you to think twice before you lay on that sandy beach or go to that party with twenty people.

Our cases are rising. We are not out of the woods. So, please keep wearing that mask and stay home.

Instead of thinking about the fourth of July activities I’ll be missing out on this year, I choose to stay at home and remember the fourth of July memories I’ve made over the years.

We all have at least one fourth of July memory which makes us smile. I know I do.

When I was a kid, most of my fourth of Julys were spent with my grandparents, my mom and sister at my grandparents lake house. My grandmother who was of the generation where food was made from a box (think mashed potatoes, shake and bake) would whip up Bisquick pancakes which my sister and I devoured. Our mom never really let us eat pancakes. Junk food, she called it, so this was a special treat. After breakfast, my grandfather would take us out in the “big boat” to the part of the lake where he could go faster than 5 mph. The “big boat” wasn’t really that big. In actuality, it was a small boat that just happened to be slightly bigger than his tiny fishing boat.

Late mornings and early afternoons were filled with a swim the lake below the house which stood on top of the lake. After our swim, my sister and I would eat salami with cheese and crackers which my grandmother would prepare for us. Junk food again according to my mom, but aren’t grandmas supposed to spoil you?

After we ate our late lunch and dried off, we may go fishing off the dock below with our grandfather or go to the local stores with our grandmother. Our grandmother who didn’t like the sun and never spent any time outside physically, loved to shop. Shopping was her exercise. So, she would come to the store with us and get lost. Otherwise, she spent almost all day in the house under the air conditioning either preparing food or playing solitaire while the Home Shopping Network blared in the background.

July 4th evenings were filled with a special dinner. We didn’t eat hot dogs or hamburgers off a grill, but it would be something special my grandmother cooked. Sometimes chicken, sometimes steak. It was always good, though, and part of it, of course, was always from a box.

After dinner, it was time for the usual July fourth festivities. We couldn’t see fireworks from their house on the lake, so my grandfather would light these sparklers and we would hold them, wondering at the fizzling lights coming from these tiny sticks.

Those were the days.

I love to think about my fourth of Julys, because they always involved my grandparents who have since died. When I think about these days, it feels like they are wrapping me in their arms in a gigantic, warm hug. My grandmother gave the best hugs, and my grandfather, with his gruff exterior, was a softy at heart.

This COVID19 fourth of July, I challenge you to stay home, and to think about the July fourths of the past. Maybe you don’t think you have any good memories like this, but I’m sure if you dig deep inside of yourself, you’ll discover that there is some significant moment dear to you on this day.

Let’s stay home this July fourth so that we may celebrate the next one.