A Good Time

Was certainly had by all. It was a very successful party; we have spent the intervening day alternately congratulating ourselves and worrying because there is a rumor that the Rich Man is not going to fund the event next year. We'll just have to see.

A full 30 guests showed up; we provided hamburgers and hot dogs and drinks; they brought side dishes and desserts. Why do pot lucks like this always work? The side dishes were perfectly balanced with a pot of wonderful hot beans plus several outstanding salads; the deserts, heavily dependent on the good local strawberry crop, were nothing short of heaven. Not everyone knew everybody else, which is always fun when the setting is casual enough to encourage mixing. I was asked how I had managed to organize guests from Chicago (they were someone's house guests), how I knew the interesting couple from Stamford (they have a summer house next door) and how I know my British friend Anita Amos, whom I have known the longest of anyone at the party, and her daughter Felicity.

The short answer on that last is that Felicity and Theo went to school together from second grade through high school. The longer answer is that for his 8th birthday party he announced that he wanted to invite a girl we knew named Hillary. Armed with coaching from diversity training I suggested that two girls would probably work out better then one and did he have a second--he did and she was Felicity. In the end Hillary didn't come but Felicity coped brilliantly on her own; playing with the boys when they would have her and playing the piano when they wouldn't. Very staunch and British, I thought. The families have been friends ever since; even once meeting up in England for a tour of Bath.

I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures of the fireworks, which were absolutely marvelous with all sorts of special effects like hearts and boxes. My favorite was a type that I've never seen before that looked like sheafs of golden wheat raining down. But I do have pictures of the lawn before the party and roughly the same shot in the midst of the fun.

At the end, when we were back in the house with a few last guests patient enough to wait for the traffic to clear we sat around talking about how much cleanup needed to be done. Roger observed that everything that is attractive to raccoons had been removed from the yard and at that moment the motion-sensing floodlights came on to reveal not raccoons but two young women fumbling around on the drinks table, presumably in search of something strong. They were even more startled by light than the raccoons usually are and fled promptly. As a precaution, we brought in the cooler with the remaining drinks before closing up for the night.

I have to admit, with the actual Glorious 4th still ahead of us, that I have some trouble these days with all the triumphant Americanism that goes with this holiday. We even sang patriotic songs as hymns in church. But I did find one line in America the Beautiful that I had forgotten which seems right for 2007:

America! America! God mend thine every flaw.

We can keep hoping. And voting.