The Fourth of July

Except for its importance in our history, I could do nicely without the Fourth of July holiday.

We are expecting over 100,000 visitors in and out of our airport this weekend.  In addition, untold numbers of cars, vans and pick-up trucks will also come here to celebrate.  All headed to our beaches, our restaurants, our grocery stores.  All of them travelling on the one and only road in town.  It’s a lot to deal with.  We, as residents, have learned to stay home during the Fourth.

That doesn’t mean we don’t celebrate here in our little community.  American flags abound and we are honored to fly our very own, given to us many years ago by a soldier on his return from Afghanistan.

But the real fun for us comes on the morning of the Fourth when all the community’s golf carts (and there are many) are decorated to the nth degree.  They line up and parade through the ‘hood.  We sit at the base our driveway and cheer them on as they pass us by.

It’s probably worth noting that we don’t just sit idly at the base of our driveway.   We sit, proudly, in the oldest golf cart of the community.  We also own the loudest fog horn in the entire world which enables us to enthusiastically express our appreciation and admiration for all the clever decorations.

It’s safe to say that we can become quite annoying.  Small children and their parents cower in shock and surprise from the loud and frequent blare of the horn.  They cover their ears.  They glower at us with scorn. Some have been known to veer off the parade route in apparent alarm.  We don’t care.

All those families have creatively and imaginatively decorated their carts for the parade.  What fun would it be without an appreciative audience?   And that’s exactly where we come in!  We are the music, the cheerleaders and the spectators, all wrapped up in one.  That fog horn may be loud, obnoxious and tacky but it gets the job done. 

We once again look forward to the Fourth of July, here in our little ‘hood.   Just as we always have. Beep, Beep!