July 7, 2009

Country Gal by Vanita Blundell Nothing ever works out the way you think it will- But not always for the bad. We had huge plans for the 4th of July, but different things happen with different people- I thought that I was going to have about 23 to 26 people running around my house blowing up things but the way it turned out I only had 13 and out of the 13 only 5 or 6 them were firecracker crazed individuals. We had Vickie and her daughter Wendy and her husband and family along with Vickie's son Mike and his wife and family. Mike's family has not ever been able to shoot off fireworks- since they live in a national forest. Well, their Uncle Jim and Cousin Jeff taught them all kinds of things. When Mike crushed a pop can his wife said that he should not have done that because she could have blown it up. It was fun to watch her enjoy the festivities of the day. Vickie and I like the homemade ice cream part the best. We are not that thrilled over firecrackers. It could have something to do with our dad. He loved to torture us with those small sticks of dynamite. He tormented Vickie more than he did me. Once when Vickie was trying to get away from dad and his insane need to horrify her with gun powder, she ran into our bathroom. Thinking that she was safe in our tiny, little bathroom with a hot water heater in it, along with a gas heater, but it was shut off, that did not stop him. He stuffed a firecracker under the door and when it went off -- well-- at least she was in the correct room of the house. Not only did it scare her half to death - it very nearly deafened her. This happened several years ago and the firecrackers had a lot more kick to them than they have now. It seemed that we always tried to hide in the bathroom when trying to get away from our persecutor. The reason we hid in the bathroom; it was the only room in the house that had a lock on the door. If Dad did not throw the explosives under the door he would spray us with the garden hose through the window in the bathroom. I might need to explain; we did not have air conditioning for many years so the bathroom window was normally open- it did have a screen on it but that did not keep the water out. When this happened mom was not entirely thrilled with any of us. Dad did quite a few naughty things, which stuck fear in our heart when the time of celebrating our country came around. So the 4th of July is not one of my favorite holidays come to think of it; it probably was not Moms favorite either.
The other thing was that made the July not real popular was if we were not through with harvest. If the wheat was cut dad was much more festive- if it was not Mom was not festive at all and neither was dad. If we were not done with harvest by the 4th of July we did not go to town unless it was absolutely necessary- because everyone would ask if we were finished cutting wheat and if we said no- you got the that poor- pitiful look. Since we no longer have wheat to cut our lives are improved greatly.
I hope that you had a safe holiday and most importantly you enjoyed your family- I know that we did.