BELATED HAPPY FOURTH

Old Trunks as been amiss in writing while at the lake for the Fourth of July weekend. What can she say except it came and went with fabulous weather.

I wonder what my grand parents did on the Fourth? It seems there were always gatherings of people for pot luck picnics and sand lot baseball games played between the Rosewood Boys and the fellows from Anita.

Can you imagine a hot holiday, dressed in layers and layers of petticoats and long dresses? How about all that hair tucked under a hat? Well, hats are really something to wear while in the sun, it keeps your head twenty degrees cooler and shades ones eyes.

Did they make ice cream? Where did the ice come from? The ice man of course. The Rosewood store surely had it. Old Trunks wonders if they bought it from the O'Hara brothers who had an ice house in Thief River Falls along with the dray company.

The ice was cut from the Thief River and the Red Lake River which confluences somewhere around the Eighth Street bridge. Soozi would know, her Dad used to catch great northern pike there in the summer using Dare Devils, (a brand and shape of a fishing lure).

The Fourth was generally a quiet holiday for our family. One year, daddy brought home several bags of night fireworks he had bought in Grand Forks. Greg and I shot them off in the middle of a sunny day. Like I told Shirley, it may have been so we could get away from painting the fence.

My family, that is Rachel, Bud, and Ryen had lots of smoke bombs, sparklers, and for Bud fire crackers. It would start the day, hour, minute, second, nano second the tents on the edge of town opened for business. Then, of course, there was the JayCee display at the hill on KU campus where were would lay in the grass and declare each display the best.

The kids are all grown up now and it sounded like Ryen watched the display in the fog of San Francisco along with his brother and his wife. As for Rachel, it appeared she watched a movie.

I wonder what my grand daughter, who is visiting her grand parents in Illinois did.

As for us, it was quiet. We heard one set of firecrackers go off on the 3rd about 10 in the evening. Although there were many cabins filled at the lake and most of the owned trailers setting on leased lots were occupied, it was very quiet.

We are old. We go to bed early because fishing starts at sunrise. We didn't eat potato salad, baked beans, Cole slaw, and chicken. We had a sandwich for lunch in the boat and hash for supper. Instead of ice cream and cake, we had pumpkin pie.

The Fourth is about being thankful for America as Eileen said. It is God Bless America. Thomas Jefferson said, "It is a time for fireworks."

For us it was seeing the first loon chick and naming her Liberty.

God Bless us one and all.

e