ABSTRACT
Where shall I go this Fourth of July? I am a patriotic American and I’ve always loved this special national holiday, but this year it is all so very different. We have sold “the summer home.” I keep trying to put it out of my mind, but it is especially hard to do that with the holiday coming up. On the eve of the Fourth, my father always loved to shoot off fireworks from our little hill going down to the lake. Then, on the morning of the Fourth, I would go to the local American Legion Hall, a small wooden house that seemed to me the perfect American icon out on the beautiful fields of southern Wisconsin, and watch the venerable veterans “march” in distinctly casual ranks that surely did not defeat the Axis (with the inevitable stop at the local watering spot, the Blue Overall Tavern).
