photos from the fourth (for you mom)

the day before the big day

the fourth of july...it has always been my most favorite holiday. when i was little, i'd wake up early to the smell of the pig roasting over a charcoal flamed spit. papa would be out there at seven a.m. with a beer and mom would be yelling, "jim, isn't it a little early for that?!" he'd reply through a cigar clenched in his teeth, "it's the fourth of july, kate, and i'm cooking the pig." it seemed reasonable to me, since he was working hard and always asked me to find him the coldest one when we worked together in the barn. it was my job to decorate the place with american flags and we had about two hundred of them to use. i would take the golf cart down the driveway and line the half mile to the house on each side. mom would then enlist us kids to help set the thirty picnic tables with red and white checkered cloth and special clips to keep them from blowing off. somewhere around ten in the morning a truck would arrive with a dunk tank, lowering the thing down with a fork life and making us nervous for the hours to come. papa would fill the tank with cold water from the hose and practice hitting the lever with a baseball. the field was set up with all sorts of games. we had an egg toss, baseball field, frisbees, volleyball net, tetherball pole, zimzam, bean bag toss, bocce ball, and water balloon fights all set up. we always had a few hundred people come to the part and there were plenty of doritos and hotdogs and icecream to make us all feel sick. my grandpa and grams would always come to the party dressed us in full red white and blue outfits, bringing lemon merangue pie and baked beans. grandma fox would then watch granny wall and count how many glasses of white zinfandel she drank. ahhh, in laws. as a kid i just wanted to play in the lake and jump in the hot tub. we spent the entire party wet, going off the slide into the water and playing rock the boat on innertubes. i loved the end of the party when we'd play with sparklers and the group had mellowed down to watch firworks over the lake. my mom taught us to write our names with light. growing up in michigan with a very patriotic family has left me with a deep appreciation for not only the holiday but what it stands for. as a woman in america today, i am endlessly grateful to have the opportunities and freedoms i enjoy. i know there are many things to be critical about and even more information about our country i'll never know. i do know this: tomorrow is a big day for us. it is a day to recognize the things we do love and the freedoms we fight for. i celebrate life, the ability to make choices, to express myself, to explore my spirituality and sexuality without being killed for it, for being able to drive and move about the country alone and unaccompanied, to wear whatever i want and be whatever i want to be. i might not agree with this war or wars of the past. i might not know a lot about politics, nor care. but i feel like tomorrow isn't just a big party and an excuse for everyone to get drunk and eat pigs. it is a day to reflect on what's most important to us and to give thanks for having the freedom to enjoy that. much love to you!=