{"id":1675,"date":"2021-07-03T14:19:34","date_gmt":"2021-07-03T14:19:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=1675"},"modified":"2021-07-03T14:19:34","modified_gmt":"2021-07-03T14:19:34","slug":"independence-day-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=1675","title":{"rendered":"Independence Day Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/--nMwliwfaNs\/YOBxYNgK0gI\/AAAAAAAAav0\/gr7najItRu8Vic075aPOhF2t-F2s6GWIwCLcBGAsYHQ\/s704\/Picnic%2BBasket.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/--nMwliwfaNs\/YOBxYNgK0gI\/AAAAAAAAav0\/gr7najItRu8Vic075aPOhF2t-F2s6GWIwCLcBGAsYHQ\/s320\/Picnic%2BBasket.JPG\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Happy 4th of July weekend!&nbsp; Can you believe we are only 5 years from celebrating our sestercenntenial, aka 250 years?&nbsp; Many of you may remember the 200 year celebration in 1976.&nbsp; I can tell you what I wore when I picnicked in the city park and got a slice of a giant birthday cake donated by bakeries.&nbsp; That was the start of our family&#8217;s now tradition of eating fried chicken with all the fixins&#8217; instead of BBQing, which we had done when I was very young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We began this year&#8217;s commemoration by attending our city&#8217;s First Friday celebration last night.&nbsp; BC (Before Covid), our town had a street fair every First Friday evening.&nbsp; Local bands play on the 3 blocks that our closed on the main street through the old business district, with a few side streets also blocked to traffic for the occasion.&nbsp; It looked like rain so hubby and I decided to arrive earlier than we used to.&nbsp; There weren&#8217;t quite as many vendors or visitors as before but it was early.&nbsp; As soon as I saw one of my favorite Italian restaurants had reopened we knew that&#8217;s where we were eating.&nbsp; It just happened that was the last restaurant we ate at on March 13, 2020 &#8211; our last day onsite at our worksites.&nbsp; Our adult kids had chastised us the following day for risking eating out the night before but we had been cautious by dining at an outside table.&nbsp; We got the same table last night and the experience was surreal.&nbsp; I actually got teary eyed when the first course arrived.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;re hoping the weather holds up for us to have our traditional picnic tomorrow followed by watching the fireworks.&nbsp; Independence takes on a new meaning for us this year as we reacclimated ourselves in our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In genealogy, we focus on the past without thinking much that our past was our ancestor&#8217;s present.&nbsp; If you have a holiday custom, like our picnic food, it once was done first.&nbsp; Spend some time researching when the first occasion was and why.&nbsp; I know we weren&#8217;t allowed to bring portable BBQ grills to the park which was why my mother changed the menu.&nbsp; We wanted to arrive at the park early as a spectacular firework show was planned to mark the bicenntenial.&nbsp; We wanted a good parking spot and viewing location so we didn&#8217;t miss that special event.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next is the most important part of the story &#8211; WRITE IT DOWN!&nbsp; It is wonderful that you made the discovery of the custom&#8217;s origin but it will be forgotten for future generations if you don&#8217;t record it.&nbsp; You don&#8217;t have to write at length.&nbsp; A brief note in your family tree program added as an event will commemorate your finding and\/or memory.&nbsp; A few family historian will certainly appreciate you took the time to save the memory.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Happy 4th of July weekend!&nbsp; Can you believe we are only 5 years from celebrating our sestercenntenial, aka 250 years?&nbsp; Many of you may remember the 200 year celebration in 1976.&nbsp; I can tell you what I wore when I picnicked in the city park and got a slice of a giant birthday cake donated &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=1675\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Independence Day Memories&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[959,957,958,960],"class_list":["post-1675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archiving","tag-bicentennial","tag-independence-day","tag-picnic","tag-sestercentennial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1675"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1676,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions\/1676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}