Independence

Ah the Fourth of July. It's one of my all-time favorite holidays and it always holds a special place in my heart. Even though I am an adult now - the holiday is still extra special for me. The fireworks have always been my favorite aspect of the holiday, but the parades aren't bad either. Today, I witnessed a spectacular parade here in Marquette, MI - one that lasted well over an hour. If we weren't worried about being boxed into a dead-end street for a couple of hours, we would've stayed for the whole thing. So we exited a little bit early to avoid the traffic jams. Still, what we witnessed was superb and hopefully next year I'll be lucky enough to have the day off again.

Marquette wasn't always our home to view the parade. Back when I was just a young boy, we'd always venture out to the small town of Trenary which was only 15 miles away from our hometown. This community's population is roughly about 300 people, but on the Fourth of July, it swelled to over ten times that. Crowds would like the streets of Trenary anxious for the parade to begin. It's one of the things I enjoyed most about summer was the Fourth of July and witnessing the parade and getting a bagful of candy. One of the neat aspects about attending a Fourth of July parade in Trenary is that the floats actually go around the parade route twice. So once you saw the very first float come back for a second time, you knew you'd get to see everything again one last time - just in case you didn't get a good enough glimpse the first time around. The parades weren't extremely flashy or for that matter very long, either. Usually they'd display the township's fire trucks, the township ambulance, school and family reunion floats, horses, the school's band, kids on bikes, a float advertising for the next outhouse classic race during the next upcoming winter, so on and so forth. When you're a kid, it doesn't matter what the floats are - just that they have candy to hand out! But the last time I attended the Trenary Fourth of July parade (back in 2003, I'd say), I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed (please, don't kill me for saying so!!). It just seemed so short and uninspiring to me - and maybe I didn't have that small-town spirit going on that day. But it just didn't seem the same to me as it did when I was little. It's not like I could stick around on that day either, because I had to go in for afternoon shift a couple of hours later. Maybe that diminished my enthusiasm quite a bit. But I must say, the parade here in Marquette is fantastic. A countless number of fire trucks, police cars, ambulances, civic organizations, military groups marching, etc. Since I had the day off, I could enjoy what was going on and I didn't feel like I had to rush off to be somewhere.

For as small as Trenary is - the fireworks have always seemed adequate. They were what you'd expect a small-town fireworks display to be. But during the last few times I've seen the fireworks in Trenary, they were much improved from what I remembered when I was a kid. In fact, last year I viewed both Marquette's and Trenary's fireworks displays and Trenary's was the best, hands-down. Marquette's Fourth of July Committee was hurting for money during last year's celebration and weren't able to come up with the funds to put on a spectacular fireworks show. That is why they seemed to disappointing compared to previous years and why Trenary's was probably much better. However, I have heard that the Fourth of July Committee here in Marquette raised more than enough money to put on a spectacular fireworks display - so that is excellent news for those that live here (oddly enough, the fireworks will be shot off tomorrow and not on the 4th). I am not able to view the fireworks display in Trenary this year (due to me having to work at 5:30 AM tomorrow!!), but I know that they will be better than ever! And I will always have the memories of attending the fireworks there with my family for many years. It will always be my first home to Fourth of July celebrations and I will never forget them.

Here's hoping all of my blog readers out there enjoyed their Fourth of July and to get out and enjoy the fireworks!! Celebrate our nation's birthday and be thankful for all that we have.