My first memories of our nation's celebration of Independence Day bring me back to my family's days at our old beach club, Davenport. As the sun sank down, and all of parents fired up the Bar-B-Q grills, I remember setting up those cheesy, red tables that folded up into briefcases, in between watermelons off the diving board, and swatting home runs with a stick ball bat into the tennis courts down the right field line.
Lately, I've been itching for simpler times like those again.
As I grew a little older, the 4th (or Phourth as I guess i should call it), seemed to revolve around a certain band--as everything did for my formative years. Atlanta '99, Philly's scenic skyline and fireworks show while at Camden in '00, man, I've missed those guys as of late. Hell, I even caught myself thinking about Trey and Page more than Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut when the TV flashed to Coney Island for Nathan's annual Hot Dog eating contest. (For the record, Chestnut ate 66 in twelve minutes...those dogs are awesome, but 66 is insane).
Maybe that sense of nostalgia was why last night was such a fun time...even if I was only out for a few hours. A bunch of old friends--and many newer ones--thanks to Erin, helped me ring in, and salvage what up to around 8 P.M. had been a rather uneventful (and WORK filled) day. However, when the party of probably 50 or so moved to the roof around 9, the overcast skies lit up--both to the east and west of us. Ari, a very gracious host cranked up his stereo, and for a half an hour, I felt at ease, remembering the times with my favorite phans, phriends, and band still made life simpler (and a hell of a lot more fun!), as "Frankenstein," "YEM," and "AC/DC Bag" filled the air in between the usual "BOOM's!" and "POW's!" that are customary on the 4th of July.
Unfortunately, things flipped back to reality quickly when the alarm blared this morning. Work. Ugh. At least I managed to waste half of my day today reliving my best stick ball homers, hot dog showdowns, and firework showcases--with a hint of "PH" on the side.
2 comments:
My favorite memory from the 4th are "bottle rockets" and "bumble bees" in the streets of Queens...if Hug ever saw a cat on the street during those moments i would fear for its life!
Ahhhhhh String Cheese Bavy...
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