Independence Day

As a kid, I remember most if not all holidays being spent at my grandparents’ home. It was a tiny little house, maybe 800 sq ft. Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve were memorable with all of us, sometimes as many as 25 or more people, crammed into the house. Summer holidays were a little better because we could be outside. Fourth of July included a bbq, playing in the sprinkler or walking back to the creek, and usually fireworks set off by my dad and uncles. I remember all of these fondly, and actually barely remember the year I got a concussion – maybe I was too young too remember. But I digress.
These fond childhood memories of all the holidays have created a lot of pressure for my current holidays. When my grandma dies, holidays changed and just were never the same. Maybe that’s what made the earlier holidays immediately cement themselves as being very precious. We still all celebrated together but sometimes we were at our home or one of my aunts’ homes. Once in college, engaged, and then married there was of course another change. In some ways it reverted back, just with large gatherings with D’s family and smaller ones with mine for whatever holidays. It wasn’t until we all started moving away that the holiday gatherings essentially ended.
I haven’t been to one in a year or more. In the meantime, I/we have been struggling to create our own traditions. We haven’t stumbled on anything yet, and we end up trying something different each year. Sometimes it’s good, but other times it’s “eh.” Christmas Eve and July 4th are the big ones. Thanksgiving is food, always will be so as long as you’re eating with people then it feels pretty normal. Easter, Memorial Day, and Labor Day aren’t that big of holidays in my mind and our family functions didn’t leave that strong an impression on me.
Yesterday was the 4th. I hadn’t even been thinking what I’d do considering it was in the middle of the week. But then T suggested we do something so we considered a few things – tubing on a river, going to the beach, biking or hiking. Water really needed to play a part so that narrowed things down even farther. We decided to stay close and try the tubing – it was available up near Mohican State Park. We drove up there somewhat early in the morning, considering it was a holiday, only to find the water temps were 70 with breezy mid-70s air temps. That was way too cold for me. If I had packed a rashguard maybe, but I’d left without any. We decided to trade in our tubing tickets for a canoe.
We started with T in front, D in the back and me riding princess-style in the center, no paddling required. There were a few little dips, or rock damns or something we had to traverse – and some super shallow areas – but otherwise it was smooth paddling. Well, we did run into those tree branches in the middle of that first S-curve, but it was fine. We avoided being hit by the mother –daughter-daughter canoe that had zero paddling skills it seemed. At least we avoided being hit that time. They did catch up to us later because we stopped along a sand bank (mud bank) to eat a snack. We tried to out paddle them but they kept paddling towards us. Why? C’mon steer or slow down or something! Annoying.
After our snack, I took the front paddling seat. I have only paddled once before and I was probably about 11. It took me a couple minutes to lose the flailing look, but after that I was fine – no longer being laughed at or feeling I deserved to be either. I settled in, stopped accidentally splashing T, and paddled away. It was really fun. We saw tubers, kayakers, and other canoers on the river too. We passed camp park after camp park and even some cabins and trailer parks. It wasn’t as scenic as it could have been, but it wasn’t bad at all. Parts were really, really pretty and smelled really good – that forest/river/outdoorsy smell. We’ll definitely go back. With all the dead fish and weird river foam, maybe we won’t go tubing, but I’d be willing to try kayaking – or even do canoeing again.
This 4th of July was good. We didn’t even see fireworks, but I still though it was good. Is it a tradition? Who knows. What’s more important is this year I didn’t miss tradition or feel like I needed to set one. The pressure I put on myself about holidays such as this was temporarily – or maybe permanently vanished. Freedom.