For This Fourth of July, a Safe Place

You burn your feet in the sand at the beach trying to lug cooler, chairs, umbrella and toys. Fifty yards from the parking lot to the ocean can feel like a march through Death Valley.

Better to stroll over to the high school football field, spread out a blanket and wait for the fireworks. Say hello to the neighbors you haven't seen since the last summer concert at Garfield Park. Watch the kids race and tumble through a maze of ice chests and lawn chairs.

People do that where I live, South Pasadena.

Just up the street is the Rose Bowl.On the Fourth you can hear their Shock and Awe fireworks campaign flaming on after the fire works have gone cold at South Pasadena High.

It's the irony that makes me stay away from the Rose Bowl. Irony can do that. Just last weekend, people were in that stadium booing the U.S. national anthem at a soccer game. Mexico defeated the U.S. team. Did the Mexico fans need to boo during the "Star Spangled Banner"?

People don't boo if you step on their blanket at the football field in South Pas.  There has been wine and beer sprinkled on innocent bystanders accidentally. Ice chests have spilled out homemade sushi after a somersault landed slightly off the mark. No one has booed.Not even when there is a long line at the porta-potty.

The is scheduled for early afternoon on Fourth of July. Really it's a parade. It just looks like a festival.

The balloon festival parade wanders along Mission Street. Parents run along side taking pictures of their kid walking down the street. I heard one young man getting ready to join his Boy Scout troop call the event a "stand-ade." Mostly people do stand around at the beginning. They get moving along soon enough. The event is for the parents, grandparents and kids who actually live in this town. No one is going to drive ten miles to see it. That's why this place is called a small town. South Pasadena is in a huge urban sprawl that engulfs everything from Ventura to San Diego.

This is still a small town.

There is a study that suggests your kid has a greater chance of becoming Republican if they go to a Fourth of July parade. What kind of parades were they studying? Maybe they saw the North Korean parades.

There was a Navy base nearby my childhood home and the soldiers marched smartly down the street with a military band. Seeing people march is unlikely to change your politics.

Nothing like that happens at the Balloon Festival Parade anyway. Some bikes have red, white and blue balloons tied to the handle bars. The Boy Scouts usually walk down the street in an orderly fashion. Does it qualify as marching?

I blame it on fireworks.

They would make me feel patriotic even if I was living in Canada.

I'd sing along with "O' Canada" if they would allow my singing.

Patriotism doesn't feel political.

Patriotism is the feeling that you are at home.

You are at home and at ease.

Find my other writing at

JOTMaster: http://comcomment.blogspot.com/

and

Cranky Man: http://crankymanchronicles.blogspot.com/