I don’t remember too much about Independence Day celebrations when I was a kid. I’ve written about the flags someone gave my brother and me when I was about seven, and the trauma that our misuse of those flags caused me. That year, the Fourth of July was more problem […]
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Flags and Foreboding
For the Fourth of July when I was seven, someone gave my brother (who was almost six) and me U.S. flags—one for each of us. Each flag was about 12 inches by 18 inches, and it was stapled to a thin dowel about two feet long. The dowel had a […]
Continue readingOh, Say, Can You See . . . ?
Last year on the Fourth of July, my son was traveling in the Netherlands. He walked past the U.S. Embassy in The Hague. Overcome with patriotism, he took this picture of the American flag waving proudly above the outpost of U.S. diplomacy. He wanted another picture, one with the Stars […]
Continue readingHarrison, Idaho, and Summer Parades
I’ve written before about the idyllic summers I spent during my teenage years on Coeur d’Alene Lake in Idaho. Some of my memories are of boating to Harrison, Idaho, a small town across the lake from where my parents’ cabin was. Harrison had the most accessible Catholic church on the […]
Continue readingIndependence Day at Independence Rock
Emigrants to Oregon in the 1840s knew that if they reached Independence Rock (located in what is now central Wyoming) by Independence Day, they had a good chance of beating the snows in the Western mountains. Independence Rock, 800 miles from the Missouri River, was a huge landmark along the […]
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