Letters
Independence Day Greetings
Dear friends,
It’s Independence Day here in the United States, so we are taking the day off for:
Hot dogs.
Hamburgers.
Potato salad from that Bon Appétit recipe from 20 years ago, the one with the diced dill pickles.
Desserts involving blueberries, red berries, and Cool Whip.
The Hamilton cast recording.
Various forms of needlework.
Thinking about going to see the parade and then thinking, no, let’s just sit here and knit in the back yard.
Ditto re: going to see the fireworks.
Evening music: an all-star concert from the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol. (They got Big Bird this year!)
Passing the Declaration of Independence around the table and reading the whole thing, for the sole purpose of giving the young folks a story for 30 years from now: “Remember how they used to make us read the Declaration of Independence every year?”
If you celebrate the Fourth, we wish you a grand day with family and friends.
Up top is a favorite version of a favorite song we learned in school.
Love,
Ann and Kay
Sending you love and Independence Day wishes from across the pond! I will be spending the evening with my son and his Amercian g/f, so we too will be indulging in hotdogs and beer <3 This is the gift I am taking to grace her table 🙂 https://www.ravelry.com/projects/kazzyb/american-flag-garland
Love this!
Oh adorable!
Such a great idea and a thoughtful gesture for your American g/f of your son!!
We were in Oxfordshire on 4th and the English gave us such nice greetings! It was really fun!
Love it! Thank you for sharing.
I’ve never heard this version of the song…love it! Happy Independence Day from a proud American immigrant.
Love this version & still miss the late Sharon Jones.
She is gone too soon. Such a story and such a voice.
Thank you, what a fabulous way to start the day!
We have the Reading of the D of I tradition, too. Our poor children!
And then, down here in Raleigh is going to be, what is getting to be the mandatory race between the fireworks and a major summer thunderstorm. Man the weather radar and cross your fingers! And if you go with food to the afternoon into evening celebrations, at least ensure the food is waterproofed.
Enjoy
More and more simpatico with every snippet. I’m prepping for our Declaration of Independence Breakfast. Soon families will start arriving by boat and golf cart to have red. white, and blue pancakes and read the Declaration aloud. Happy Fourth!
Happy Independence Day! Made the ice cream yesterday (espresso flavor) to get a jump start. Hoping to get a little free time to figure out where I left off on my knitting project!
Happy 4th from Iowa! Grilling hamburgers and watching baseball on the TV. Too much humidity and too many bugs to knit in the backyard.
Happy Fourth! Ours will be very similar to yours, except we kick the BBQ up a notch to include steaks and salmon.
For 30 years, I’ve enjoyed listening to the NPR staff read the Declaration of Independence on the morning of the 4th. (Going online to get the link to send, I now see photos of the current “cast” of readers, which is fun.) Wish my family had read it aloud! It’s remarkable to hear, every year. Now THAT’S writing!
http://www.npr.org/2019/07/04/733431874/a-july-4-npr-tradition-a-reading-of-the-declaration-of-independence?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20190704&utm_campaign=npr_email_a_friend&utm_term=storyshare
Hope to knit a bit before the fireflies come out–low-key, nightly fireworks. Happy 4th, holiday or not.
I too love the NPR reading, so thanks for the link. I miss the 4ths of my high school years when the municipal (town pop 12,000) I played in did a concert at the city park followed by fireworks. This year, knitting = for sure; fireworks = maybe. Happy Independence Day!
Happy Fourth to you and yours……and to all of the MDK readers out there! I am making a red, white, and blue cake to take to a party hosted by friends……..then home to knit and watch Braves baseball……..and listen to the fireworks my neighbors shoot off, which terrify my dogs. We used to run Atlanta’s Peachtree Road Race every July 4th…….I’d rather read the D of I!!! Fortunately we’ve come to our senses and we simply walk on the golf course for an hour with our aforementioned pooches. I love reading others’ holiday traditions !
There is a full print copy of the Declaration in the Grey Lady (The New York Times) every year … though I do miss the version they use to print of the original document (the current version has the text in a normal font, with a smaller picture of the original document).
Wish I had gotten to NYPL to see the Jefferson copy, but alas and alack it was only on display for two days.
Oh, I love the idea of reading the Declaration of Independence around the table! Happy 4th everyone. Celebrate!
As I read this, the neighborhood 4th of July parade is forming on the street just outside our house; almost ready for the decorated wagons and bicycles to go around the block—led by the Boy Scouts, police motorcycles and several Marine veterans in flag formation. Then hot dogs, root beer and Philly soft pretzels as parents and grandparents and us empty-nesters chat. They had pony rides when my boys were little. Now there’s a Moonbounce. Kids love it all.
Thank you for that. How appropriate
I love it that “This Land Is Your Land” has become our unofficial national anthem. It’s particularly satisfying because, during his lifetime, composer Woody Guthrie was excoriated as a “dirty Commie”. The wheel turns, but it sometimes turns slowly….
Thank you and Happy Fourth to y’all and all the MDK community. We are driving home from a trip. The Husb is taking grandkids to the baseball game, and I’ll be knitting in front of the TV. I’ll treat myself to a burger out.
My brother got married last month, and his wife is from Kumamoto, Japan. Her parents just sent us a photo of them with American swag from their visit here (Angels baseball T-shirt! See’s Candy tote bag with American flag motif! Canter’s Deli T-shirt!)— love it. 🙂 For his wife’s first Fourth, he’s taking her for a movie, pro soccer, and (of course) fireworks. I’m pretty sure OUR first Fourth as new immigrants to the U.S. from Ireland 40+ years ago (I was very little) involved Cincinnati Reds baseball and a barbecue. 🙂 We immigrants get into the Fourth of July, folks.
A friend just sent this, which I had forgotten about (and maybe I saw it first via an MDK post): In the summer of 2005, artist Dave Cole staged a performance art piece at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) entitled “The Knitting Machine.” Over the course of the Fourth of July weekend, Cole used aluminum utility poles attached to John Deere excavators to “knit” a giant American flag out of acrylic felt. Filmmaker Jack Criddle was hired to shoot and edit this short film of the project’s construction, and the finished product was screened at the New York Times Travel Show.
https://vimeo.com/28618663?fbclid=IwAR3TovLR7ZsR1kvHvahTW2cSSZxrNOyGYRMuN02anOyCaq-nI4x8OLPxPaA
This is amazing!! Thx for the link
My husband and I could be classed as “old”, but that music set us off dancing around the kitchen. Real swinging sound. Thank you.
That made my 4th. Sharon Jones was one of the greats. Here in small town America, we knit while watching the parade from our front porch. Skipping the fireworks though because we have to be home to comfort the four legged members of our family who don’t love the sound of neighborhood fireworks so much. Happy Independence Day to y’all. It’s good to read the real words of the Declaration and the Bill of Rights every now and then just in case.
I read deeply pleased to click on the link and discover Sharon’s version of a very traditional song. All by herself, she suggests that EVERYTHING is a matter of perspective, and that one wonderful thing about Americans is that we continue to try to look through the viewpoints of others. Happy Fourth of July!
Happy 4th! I love reading all the grand celebrations and traditions everyone has. Here is a good statement on how the Declaration should be read and understood from The Atlantic by Danielle Allen. https://youtu.be/AqiFMiQeXNQ
I might get my daughter to buy into reading the Bill of Rights, even if this is Declaration of Independence, not Signing of Bill of Rights Day.
This is the first time in ages I haven’t made a point of listening to the Declaration of Independence on NPR. I also decided to skip my town’s parade, because lately everything – every thing! – about America has the power to make me cry. So on the 4th of July 2019 I unloaded grain and hay, avoided all images and words from DC, and blogged about painting an iceberg. Survival in strange days.
That sounds like a good plan. I spent the day with a friend and we off-line and watched Endeavour.