home free

Three cheers on this 4th of July for being free to celebrate in our own style.  For the 1st time, with a fully vegan spread!!  No more eggs or milk for moi. Almost a year after being instructed by Dr. Lehman to not eat "anything that had a face or a mother," am no longer simply vegan-ish.  

Garden burgers with slices of onion & tomato;  vegetarian baked beans; utterly YUM homemade potato salad with grated onion & chopped celery veganaisse;  sunflower seeds & raisins as garnishes.  

All served on the back porch, which John has cleared off & looking fine.  Watching the last two episodes of Monk on our itty bitty dvd player!  

We'll be home as comfort for any cat who wants to seek shelter under our legs during the BOOM!  BOOMS!  

Right where the two of us are happiest on the 4th.

Only took me 25 years to be fully okay with not thinking the "right" place to celebrate the 4th was at the Bryn Athyn picnic.  Confession - I remember being relieved when I got sick on the 4th back in 1959 & we came home early from the picnic.  Good thing we did, since it turned out Weitzel Lumber was burning to the ground & Dad was the only person with any authority who wasn't out of town & he wouldn't have heard about it if they hadn't been talking about it during the Phillies game on the radio.  But the fact is that I would, even back then, preferred being home on the 4th.

Not true when we had guests.  The 4th was our happiest family holiday.  I remember Whitney at the swimming pool when she was just a baby (Peter was incensed they wouldn't let her swim with Pam in the main pool - "she wouldn't have an accident"), Reynolds riding his decorated trike in the parade (and the great pic Mom snapped of him amidst her red, white & blue peonies), Scott celebrating with us when he was in B.A., the special times with the Zeigler kids when they stayed with us before & after ANC summer camp.  All the times before, when Mom would make her awesome picnics & we'd set up, as a family, under the canopy of shade trees that lined the old football field (now that Morna has gone will they name it "Hyatt Field"?).  Watching fireworks set off from the bottom of Church Hill, people scattered all over the top.  The Bryn Athyn Hill William Band, the March of Dimes, my "Let Freedom Ring" decorated bike, dressed in a hula skirt & carrying a "Me too Uncle" sign.  

I have a treasure house of fabulous 4th of July memories.  Years & years & years of stress-free family celebrations that are held inviolate in my heart.  And years & years & years of stress-free celebrations ahead of the two of us, honoring the high ideals stated in the Declaration of Independence by partying in our own unique style.  

Let freedom ring across the land!