Snow Melt

Fourth of July Memories

11 Rahmat 164 BE – Wednesday, July 4, 2007 4:47:55 AM PDT

The fourth of July always brings back memories of my Grandparents. My Grandfather always enjoyed the Fourth. Usually we went to Lake Blackwell (I think that’s what they called the lake outside of Blackwell, Oklahoma) and shot off fireworks. Sometimes we went to Lake Carle Blackwell (different from the one above).

For three years in a row, Grandpa took us to Lake Carle Blackwell. A family of cousins went with us. The adults drove two cars. The first year we went, my youngest brother almost drowned. He was wearing a life jacket (Grandpa always insisted we wear life jackets when we went in the water) and the jacket got water soaked. My brother was unable to get out of the water and got pulled under. Grandpa rescued him. Grandpa was our guardian angel.

The second year one of my cousins pulled a skillet of hot grease off on herself. The skillet was on one of those camping stoves. The handle, of course, was where she could grab it so she did. They took her to a nearby town, but I don’t remember the name of the town.

The third year one of my male cousins set off a cherry bomb. It exploded sending rocks into his eyes. I can’t remember if they took him to a hospital ER or not. That was the last year we went to Lake Carle Blackwell, I don’t think anybody wanted to take the change of anyone getting killed because of an accident.

It’s strange what we remember from celebrations of our childhood. The Fourth stands out. After retiring Grandpa rented a site at Lake Blackwell and put a trailer house (Mobil home) on it. He had a boat. On the Fourth of July, we’d go to the Lake to water ski, fish and set off fireworks. Roman Candles were legal then. I remember Grandpa sitting on the hood of the car and holding a roman candle while it sent it’s colors into the air. I remember once it backfired on him, he made sure his shirt wasn’t on fire and we continued to celebrate. All things considered, we were lucky.