The highlight of our 2017 July 4th celebration occured first thing this morning. We were on our way to the Clearfield parade, and stopped at the store to get some candy for Audrey to throw at parade goers. She was in the parade as part of the Clearfield High School Theater Department, which is the only reason we were going to Clearfield's parade in the first place. Truth be told, Clearfield is not my favorite parade, or city for that matter. The parade route goes right down Main Street, past all kinds of sketchy looking businesses, and there are hardly any trees or good places to sit.
Anyhow, as we were checking out, I spotted a Diet Coke with the name Will on it, just sitting right there in the cooler next to the check out line. Just waiting for me, apparently. I could not let a Diet Coke named Will spend the holiday in a cooler in Clearfield, so I promptly bought it, took it to the parade and drank it in Will's honor. It was like having a little piece of him there at the parade with us.
Awwww.
And then, the day just got off kilter somehow.
It wasn't a terrible day, just.....different. Kinda like we were just observers, not really participators.
We sat a few rows back at the parade. Most years we are on the front lines, diving for candy and waving at squirt gun carriers. This year we just sat and watched. When Audrey came by, I tried so hard to get a picture of her in the parade, an right at the moment she was passing, my phone started ringing and I got distracted with trying to get the call to drop so I could use the camera. By the time I looked up, she was gone. I missed the whole reason I went to the parade in the first place!
After the parade, Duncan had to work til 2, so we all sat around the house for a few hours trying to figure out what we should do. We decided we better head up to the Logan house and check things out and water the lawn. The renters moved out a few days ago, so the life of the lawn is back in our hands.
We got Duncan from work and headed straight for Logan. He was NOT happy about this shocking development in his itinerary and let us know all the way up there. We tried to convince him it was going to be okay. I told him it was a family adventure. He wasn't buying it, soI told him we would hurry and get it over with. Then Olivia piped up with, "Oh, great, it's a family outing we just want to get over with!" Ah, the girl is learning fast.
Our plans after Logan were to come back home, make a fire and roast hot dogs and s'mores, then head over to see the fireworks. We were so late getting back though, that we didn't have time for a fire, so we just fried up those dogs in the house and wolfed 'em down. Not very celebratory, and not a s'more in sight.
We made it to the fireworks in plenty of time and with a grumpy Duncan in tow, who really wanted to just stay home. His whole routine for the day was off and he was not having a good day. The fireworks were fine. Clearfield usually puts on a crazy good fireworks show, but this year, they just ended. Abruptly and in the middle of a song, with no spectacular grand finale like in other years. Everybody just sat there for a few minutes, thinking that they would start up again, but they didn't. Then the field lights came on, which seemed like a sign that things were really over so everybody got up and left. We were about half way to our car when the dumb things started going off again. So we stopped walking and stood on the sidewalk and watched our grand finale. I guess they had a bit of glitch.
Before we got to the car, a big fight broke out on the other side of the street. Guys were yelling and cursing and crowds were standing around watching. It was a little scary. The cops were right there, but it felt like one of those situations where you just can't predict what might happen. I would say the crowd on the whole was pretty rough this year. A little inner city jibe going down in Clearfiled tonight. I don't think we will go next year. Next year in fact, we may stay inside in our pajamas, drink hot chocolate and watch a Christmas movie. Maybe Elf. Just so we can say we were swimming against the current. We are celebrating Independence Day after all.
