4th of july

the 4th of july presented us with a wide variety of choices.

we could go to philadelphia.

we could visit washington dc.

we could visit boston.

all wildly tempting with their richness in history especially as it relates to the founding of our nation.

the problem lay in my desire to avoid big cities. and in the reality that all of those cities would require multi-day visits to satisfy my history bug.

instead we opted for a more small town, traditional 4th.

and of course not being locals we did the only thing we could. we climbed in the car and drove around.

gettysburg would have been our first choice but lo and behold they held celebration on the 1st while we were galavanting around other parts of the state.

we finally settled on the town of fairfield, pa. with a population of a bit more than 600 souls.

it was the traffic sign that caught our eye. warning drivers of potentially heavy traffic due to the annual 4th of july picnic. how much traffic is a town of 600 going to generate i thought.

the gathering was held in a large park on the outskirts of town.

there were the usual suspects. bbq'd dogs, burgers and sausages. sno-cones. pop and kettle corn. there was a battle of local bands to raise money for breast cancer research.

at one end of the park was a rather large stream. teeming with children doing their best to catch the few bedraggled crayfish who had somehow failed to find adequate hiding places. cristian, as he has been apt to do on this trip, ran over and jumped right in. before long his new friends had taught him the ends and outs of catching crayfish.

i for my part pulled up a chair and spent the afternoon just being.

towards dusk the band battle was replaced by a patriotic song sing-a-long. while not a raging success i enjoyed listening to the large group of mostly seniors stumble their way through the songs. what they lacked in talent they made up for with heart.

the fireworks while not wrapped in the glitziness of some of the bigger displays i have seen were still exceptional.

across the street from the park was a large hill that in the winter passed for the towns ski resort. the fireworks were launched from the top of the hill. which in turn ensured that everyone had a great view of the celebration.

as we walked back to the car i remembered the sign warning of heavy traffic. i was reminded again of the difference between the big city and a small town when the heavy traffic took all of five minutes to negotiate before we hit the open road once more.