Note: I'm writing this as though today were after the Fourth, not before it. Also, please remember this whole thing is set ten years ago. -D.
Why do we have Independence Day Observed? What's wrong with celebrating the Fourth of July on the July 4th, on Saturday? I suppose it has something to do with giving people who have the weekends off an extra day out of work, but plenty of people work on the weekends, so the relocation of the holiday must do nothing for them. That July 4th isn't the day independence was actually declared--July 2nd was--makes the whole thing seem ironic to me.
Anyway, we here on campus don't take off for Independence Day to begin with, so we just went ahead and celebrated on the 4th, an advantage because it meant my brother could bring the kids over for the day. Of course, the fireworks were still on Friday, we don't have any control over that, but I don't really care about fireworks anymore anyway. I do care about spending time with my family and I find I do care about American history.
I had some free time in the morning, so we found Charlie and got him to give us a project we could do with my brother's kids. He assigned us beetling, of course (more accurately, de-beetling--you go around and knock Japanese beetles off plants and into coffee cans of soapy water), but surprised me by choosing to prune hedges nearby. He didn't talk to us much, but I could tell he was being companionable. We all talked less because of his silence. Then I taught a workshop in the afternoon--unrelated to the holiday, I'm sorry to say--and then met up with my family again for dinner.
After dinner, as usual, Greg read the Declaration of Independence in the long evening. No particular discussion or lesson developed, we just all gathered to listen and it was nice. A couple of students played an instrumental version of the Star Spangled Banner, and my niece, Ruthie, who is seven now, melted my heart by singing along with her hand over her chest. It's a very pretty song, really.
"What did you do this afternoon?" I thought to ask, after the song, while everyone was dispersing. She didn't answer at first, then gasped and started talking very fast--she'd forgotten she had news for me.
"We went to Steve Bees' workshop--that's called auditing, did you know that? And it was all about the Founding Fathers, and this was the last day of it and they did a play that they'd practiced by reading and stuff and so everyone in the workshop played a different Founding Father and there wasn't a script, they just knew their parts and made it up as they went along--that's called improv, did you know that? And they all, all the Founders, got into a big fight, they were all yelling at each other, and my favorite were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson because they were friends and they died today except years and years ago, did you know that? We didn't know about the play, we just happened upon it by accident and it was SO MUCH FUN! Did you know there was going to be a play, Uncle Daniel?"
No, I did not. I hadn't thought to ask. Some people have all the luck.
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