July 4th. It is a holiday marking our independence from the British. I doubt that entered my mind as a kid. July 4th was all about fireworks, a day off---maybe, watermelon, and homemade ice cream.
Most of the time, July was a month we were right in the middle of hoeing cotton. When July 4th arrived, it was business as usual. Unless we had had rain, and it was too wet, we went to the field to hoe weeds. We might get to stop early that day, which we would definitely consider a treat.
Usually my mom would cook out hamburgers and fix homemade ice cream. There were a few times that July 4 was cold and rainy, so the cookout and ice cream were not as welcomed.
When we were really young, my dad would go to the firework stand and get us fireworks. I can remember him coming home with a package of fire crackers, some Texas Screamers (they were known by another more racist name back in that day), a Roman candle, and sparklers. That pretty well summed up what we got. We thought that we were the most blessed children in the world. It was great. I think shooting off our fireworks probably lasted an entire 10 minutes, but it was fun. I remember my dad purchasing a cigar so that he could light the fireworks. That was a very long time ago. After the firework stands came out with those sticks that were used as lighters, my dad never got another cigar.
As we got older we began to use our own money (earned by hoeing cotton) to buy our own fireworks. We usually purchased pretty much the same types of fireworks, but added a few that were for older kids. Bottle rockets were great! We generally tried not to shoot up all our fireworks in one evening so we could continue to play with matches and gun powder.
There was one story my dad told about when he was a kid that we never wanted to happen to us. He said that he got a string of firecrackers and asked his dad to light them for him. My grandpa lit the entire string at once and they all popped in a matter of minutes. My dad said he was so upset and never asked his dad to light his firecrackers again.
Warnings of not holding on to the firecracker too long were given each year, multiple times. My dad was pretty good at telling stories of how some kid got his finger blown off by a firecracker. I can tell you that was not done by one of those little Black Cat firecrackers, but was the result of a much larger, more dangerous type. It did make us be more careful though.
Often we would get a can and put the lighted firecracker under an old vegetable can and watch the can lift off the ground when the firecracker exploded. Our goal for bottle rockets was to place the rocket in a can or bottle in such a manner that it would fly farther than the other person's. We did have to be careful if it was a dry year. We did not want the bottle rocket to land in dry grass and start a fire.
Watermelon was sometimes a treat, but usually it was not one that we had grown in our garden. Our watermelons would not be ripe until late August or early September. Nevertheless, it was a treat if we got to eat one.
One year we went to our cousin's house. They were lighting firecrackers and throwing them. One of the firecrackers went off just as it passed my ear. My ear rang for the rest of the night and it really did hurt. This was a case of us not being very careful.
After the 4th of July, I would always get the feeling that there was not much of the summer holiday left. It was a rather sad feeling.
When I look back, it is so nice to remember that it did not take a lot to make life fun for us. Just a few fireworks, a treat of watermelon, grilled hamburgers, and home made ice cream---these were special and made life good.
