I spent my morning sitting on the side of a road, cheering and clapping, as people of all ages paraded before me, either walking, or riding in cars, boats, and golf-carts tricked out in red, white, and blue.
They tossed candy and flags, and some squirted bystanders with water guns. Half the town's population marched passed: the high school marching band, the Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Brownies, the community swim team, the mini-football players and cheerleaders, the different churches, the mayor and city councilman, and, signaling the end, the police cars and fire trucks.
My favorite entry this year was the Hill Country Plungettes, a drill team of about fifty women in their sixties and seventies marching in formation, dressed in matching blue capris and red vests, and each carrying a glittery-silver toilet plunger.
Sometime after the Plungettes and before the convertible carrying the Women’s Club Scholarship winners, I realized that, for the first time in my thirteen parades, I didn’t have at least one of my own kids marching or riding. It was a bittersweet moment.
One of the best things about living in this small town is the all-out, totally red, white, and blue, unabashedly patriotic celebration of the Fourth of July. It starts with this parade and then moves to a lakeside park filled with booths sponsored by every organization in town: think live music, beauty contests, games, and food booths spread out under the live oaks next to Lake Travis.
The best part comes after dark - the most spectacular fireworks show I’ve ever witnessed. It goes on and on and on - huge bursts of red, white, and blue and showers of silver sparkles, high above and reflected upon the surface of the lake.
For this one day my very politically fractured and diverse town comes together as a big family to celebrate and give thanks that we live in such a beautiful corner of a uniquely wonderful country.
Even though my kids have gotten too old to march, I know memories of the parade and fireworks will continue to sparkle in their hearts (and mine) every Fourth of July for the rest of their lives, no matter where they are, and I also give thanks for that.
Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of [people] and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.
~Dwight D. Eisenhower
Here are glimpses from our first parade in 1996...Webelo Scout Tommy marching with the older Boy Scouts; Daniel riding with the Cub Scouts; TG in her fairy costume on the Lago Vista Performing Arts float...
