Celebrating Independence

The 4th of July in the US is a big holiday and celebrates the signing of the "Declaration of Independence" where the US declared it's independence from Great Britain in 1776.  It's a big day in the American calendar (at least from what I can tell) and it was a good start for me to be able to get a better feel for the country where we'll be spending the next 6-7 weeks.

We arrived in Indianapolis, Indiana just in time for the 4th July weekend & Nick's parents had arranged for us all to go see "Symphony on the Prairie" - an open air concert set in a natural amphitheater, funnily enough on the prairie. You bring your own picnic and sit back & relax while the orchestra plays some patriotic music (John Phillips Sousa for those who like me are uneducated in these things).

The "staff" working at the venue were all dressed in regalia dating back to the war of independence - I felt a tad sorry for them in the balmy evening sun. There were also men dressed in full Military dress bearing flags from the time and marching through the audience at various points in the night. Here comes the first quirky thing of the evening - every time the flag-bearers walked past people stood up. After a few of these I had to ask what was going on - trying to find a way to balance my food while getting out of the deck chair was proving a little difficult! It seems that there's a rule somewhere which states you must stand when the star spangled banner goes by.

The second unusual thing for me was the military medley - towards the end of the evening the orchestra played the theme tune for each branch of the military and invited all marines, army, navy, air force & coast guards to stand for their part of the medley. I haven't had lots of experience with all things military but this struck me as a tad strange in the middle of the concert.

During the evening the orchestra played the 1812 overture and at an appropriate point fired off some canons on the back of the hill to give a real "boost" to the music. As darkness fell an almighty firework display kicked off set to music, rather an impressive end to a wonderful evening on the prairie.

Next stop on our 4th July weekend was a trip up north to Kalamazoo, Michigan to meet Nick's wider family & see where his parents & grandparents come from. The drive north took about 3 hours - a short hop compared with what we're going to be doing in the next weeks. The drive itself was pretty uneventful - the scenery is pretty flat so we had to amuse ourselves with spotting roadkill and watching the temperature rise ( it got above 95F/ 35C by the time we hit Kalamazoo...)

Nick's uncle, Brian, had gathered all the family for a big BBQ on Saturday afternoon so they could see Nick again & meet me for the first time. All in all we were around 15 including all the kids. Luckily the back yard had a huge tree which kept us cool & in the shade all afternoon. It also meant I didn't burn like a lobster which was expected given the heat.  The kids spent their time under the sprinkler to cool off, and every so often Nick would go take over and drench them and get a little relief from the heat ;)

The BBQ was a great way to meet all Nick's family - uncle, aunt, grandma, cousins and their kids - and to experience yet again American warmth & hospitality. By the end of the evening I had managed to figure out everyone's names. Hopefully I can still remember next time we meet!

As dusk settled I saw fireflies for the first time.  If you don't know what they are imagine medium sized flies with a light bulb attached to their rear end which they can light at will.  Pretty amazing i thought and a beautiful sight when there are hundreds lighting up the glade.

The evening ended with an obligatory fireworks display and although not set to music they were pretty amazing! Brian had managed to get hold of some BIG explosive fireworks. Any fireworks which leave the ground are actually outlawed in Michigan so we're talking "back of a van" resourcefulness to get hold of them ;) Brian improvised a rocket launcher device (old work boot with some sort of cylinder stuffed in at the ankle) to drop what looked like grenades into so they could be lit. The fireworks were LOUD and made an amazing light display in the sky. Every so often we would check out the front of the house just in case the police would catch us in the act and bring an early end to our firework display.

On Sunday morning before heading back to Indy we stopped for breakfast at a place called "Cracker Barrel" with Grandma, Brian & Lisa. The signature dish was "grits", this was served with everything regardless of whether you want it (I can see another blog post on that phenomenon later on the trip). Grits are some sort of porridge-like dish made with corn, typically found in the deep south. So, we got grits along with our bacon & eggs and I dutifully tried them. I figured I'll be trying worse by the end of the trip, how bad can something porridge-like be? Well, in my opinion they're pretty tasteless. They're a little stodgy and have a starchy consistency so it feels like you're swallowing something chalky. But that's my thinking, if you have a chance try them - somebody has to like them!

Before leaving Michigan we stopped at the graves of Nick's grandparents. One grandfather lies in a quaint, old cemetery in the outskirts of Kalamazoo. Big old trees provide great shelter and bring an air of serenity. On the grave a little US flag had been placed on his grave and others by the Veterans association in honour of soldiers who have passed.  All in preparation for independence day. A nice touch, I thought.

Next stop was the National Cemetary at Fort Custard where Nick's other grandfather and grandmother are buried. The cemetery is solely for military servicemen and their spouses. It's a huge expanse of graves and it takes quite some time to find who you're looking for. Luckily they had a map at the entry so you can look up the name of the person & the machine prints out a map with a grid reference. The entry to the cemetery is a long winding road lined with huge flags, an amazing sight as the flags billow in the breeze. We walked past so many graves while we looked for the right spot. The names on the graves were such a mix - German, English, Irish, Polish, Spanish or Hispanic, Asian & many other origins. Just another indication of the melting pot which is the USA. Every so often you step over an empty spot waiting to be filled by the wife or husband of those gone before. The cemetery was both impressive and humbling at the same time.

Driving back in to Indianapolis on Sunday we decided to stop off and get our own fireworks ready for our own 4th July BBQ. We stopped in a fireworks store to pick up a selection but had to sign a piece of paper saying we would only set them off outside of Indiana. Indiana is another state where fireworks are not really allowed but you can buy them so long as you promise to set them off somewhere else.  Another peculiarity of the US that weekend!

Driving towards Nick's parents every house we passed had their own US flag out front, a baby one on post box if not a very large one hanging off the front of the house. The only time you see that many flags in Ireland is to support the local teams in a major game or during the world cup, when we actually make it...

4th July was a lazy day with an obligatory visit to the mall. Amazingly on their most important national holiday the stores were open until 7pm - didn't leave much time for celebrating... Our BBQ started with the boys breaking out the cigars (Nick, his dad Norm & friend Sam) while we waited for the others to arrive. By 5.30 the grill was on and the lawn games were in full swing - I haven't played croquet in an age but my skills have not improved with age!

Once dusk set it we got started on our fireworks. We'd got a mix of a few things and started to set things off but unfortunately none of ours were as big as at Brians.  We tried hard to improvise - we set about 50 bottle rockets around the rim of our own launch cylinder and it took 3 of us together set them off. It's amazing how quickly you become a pyro when fireworks are around ;) The whole neighborhood was determined to out-do one another so the fireworks were being fired off for hours and not just the baby ones. By the time we went back inside the house a cloud of smoke lay thick over everything and we could barely see the house next door.

All in all it was an enjoyable 4th July weekend with lots of fireworks, flags & BBQ's - not a bad way to celebrate.  For me it's still hard to identify a similar celebration in Europe where there is such a display of patriotism and national pride. Over the course of the weekend we hypothesized about a few reasons for this - countries are much older, dates to celebrate are not universally the same / accepted, Europe's experience with nationalism has not been so positive, etc etc.  Any other suggestions to solve the conundrum are welcome!

Jo

Location:Indiana & Michigan