While Living with my friend Brennan we’d walk down to the Catonsville 4th of July Parade together. Weird cars (about a billion Corvettes for Jade), accordions, hot dogs and hot people.I wasn’t kidding about the accordions.
For the past twenty years we’ve generally been playing the day of Independence Day so we don’t have TIME to go see fireworks. When Kristen and I first started dating, we tried to find the time – I think in an effort to tell one another Stories of our Past we’d both somehow implied a joy in fireworks displays and it wasn’t till years later that it turned out that each of us had been going to see fireworks to please the other.
In any case – today is about going to visit our parents like good adults, dealing with whatever chaos they may bring us, and then we’ll be back to pat our cat on the head if we can find him.
It’s actually been surprisingly quiet. With a heat index of 114 degrees I guess it’s too hot for shenanigans and detonations.
Kristen and I ready to watch the fireworks together in 2009.ilyAIMY performing the Takoma Park 4th of July in 2012.I can NOY imagine I actually took this photo, but I have no record otherwise. In 2015 we gathered with Suzibird at Virgin Dave’s and … well, we could SEE the fireworks off in the distance over Saint Louis, MO – but we didn’t watch them. We watched the bats chasing bugs in their back yard, who would suddenly swirl violently and go a little crazy with each detonation. Little black bodies dancing in percussion synchrony. It’s one of my favourite 4th memories.Bats don’t photograph well from a distance.Hee! that’s Susan in the background!Honestly, since we’d play during the day and race to be home before the crowds hit the roads, we’ve seen a LOT of fireworks pulled over on the side of the road.In 2017 I was in possession of my wife’s freshly-made engagement ring and decided to take some photos of it!In 2024 I don’t think I’d REALIZED it, but we’d spent the 4th of July in that most American of pursuits, Lego shopping during a massive road trip – in Sweden!Last year we played Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyards for the 4th of July.
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