HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA
Happy Birthday Myron
Happy Retirement Sue

The 4th of July holiday weekend started with lady friend Sue Brooks’ retirement. Nancy Meinzer and husband Mark (above left) with a group of 11 square dancing friends helped Sue celebrate her first hours of retirement Friday evening. The wildflower Canada Lily joined Sue’s celebration by blooming on the shore of my pond.



Saturday seared the soul with slices of Americana everywhere.

...a breakfast with bicycling friend Ken Johnson (right) and his bride JoAnn. ...a bike ride in the annual Bellville parade. ...the Freedom Festival and car show at the Mansfield airport. ...my pilot friend Myron Collier’s 80th birthday celebration. ...another bike ride, this one with the Mansfield Tea Party in the Ontario parade. ...concluding with a sunset visit to Ashland’s Balloonfest where towering balloon’s glowed with their gas light as the sun set on our nation’s birthday party.

Pshew!

At the Don and Roberta Karger home Friday evening it was a sit-down dinner for Sue then the warm magic of fellowship around the fireside with intensely caring friends.

Saturday was stuffed with events that would have made Normal Rockwell proud.

My little village of Bellville is small-town America on this anniversary of our nation’s birth.

Our friends Dick and Rose Hatfield had their sparkling 57 Chevy front and center at the Mansfield airport celebration where lady friend Sue and grand daughter Mackenna are dwarfed (right) by the engine of an air national guard C-130 aircraft.

My pilot friend Myron Collier flew for years for The Empire Steel Company, under its various names and retired commanding one of their fleet of corporate jets. He also was the FAA examiner who sweated me through many of my flying licenses and ratings.

That’s Myron on the right in a backyard scene typical of this land that stretches from sea to sea.

His wife Pat, herself a veteran pilot, beamed as family and friends toasted Myron’s 80th birthday while he, all the while, shook his head in amused denial of his longevity.

My celebration grew more somber in Ontario’s parade where I bicycled the route with the Mansfield Tea Party and pondered the work ahead in getting our nation back on track from the train-wreck of current Washington, DC politicians.

Our weekend concluded with a picnic with dancing friends Russ and Jane Matz in the parking-lot of their Ashland real estate and appraisal business.

I sat there and watched the fireworks crowd assemble itself along a very busy Claremont Ave., where we had ring-side seats for the evening’s colorful and noisy spectacle.

I enjoyed the sensation of spinal tingles as our country’s birthday celebration ran its delightful course.

But, for the first time in my life I really wondered what form of US of A we were now fermenting for future generations.

Fireworks dazzled the senses as Ashland’s 4th of July party concluded Saturday night; this image being the product of some old-fashioned photography effort and a bit of digital magic with Photoshop software. I beg your indulgence.