July

Parades, small cloth flags on wooden sticks, ice cream out of waxed cups eaten with a flat wood spoon band in the band shell followed by earthshaking fireworks that was the Fourth of July at Hart Park back in Wisconsin. There have been many Fourths since but the ones back home as a child remain fresh as if hey were just yesterday.

I can remember sitting on the garage roof watching the fireworks around town when I was older -- we were literally surrounded by the various displays. Later the city of Milwaukee had fireworks on the lake front and we took our kids, keeping the traditions alive.

We can hear fireworks from here in AZ now, but we don't fight the crowds to watch. The temps are at 116 right now and the monsoons are firing up in the Northeastern part of the state. The huskies have found cool spots on the tile under the fans and I am tempted to join them, but I'll settle for sitting quietly and thinking of Fourths gone by.