Patch Blog: Dadmissions on the 4th of July

I don't know what it is about the 4th of July. It just makes me nostalgic for my childhood, for the small town where I grew up, for the little things that make a hometown a home.

Growing up in Sharon, Massachusetts just miles from Paul Revere's famous ride, a town of 15,000 with streets named Musket and Gunsmoke, I always realized the close ties we had to history. The park in town was named Deborah Sampson after a young woman who pretended to be a man, so she could fight in the Revolution. Signs of history were everywhere in that small town and the 4th of July held a very special place.

Each July 4th when I was very little, we'd gather for a parade down South Main Street in Sharon to watch the school marching bands, the fire trucks all decorated with red, white, and blue bunting, and other city vehicles go by as people waved and tossed pieces of candy out to the kids.

After the parade, we'd end up at Lake Massapoag for the fireworks show at night. The entire town would be down on the lakeside with sparklers and glow sticks, huddled in lawn chairs and under blankets as the cool breeze came off the water.

The fireworks show would always be great and in the end, we'd all gather our chairs and blankets and make the walk home from the lake. I never thought I'd see that small town pride and sense of community again, and then we found South Pasadena. I really couldn't believe it on my first 4th of July here three years ago. It had that same small town feeling with the kids patriotic decorations around town and the big banner hanging above Fair Oaks Street.

We went from the pancake breakfast at the fire station, to the parade, and eventually the fireworks show at the high school. I couldn't believe that same feeling, the sense of community with the whole town there, gathered on the turf of the high school field, listening to the music and then gazing up in wonder as the fireworks took off into the sky.

When I first came to California eight years ago, the nostalgia for those 4th of July festivities in my little town didn't go away. Several years ago, my wife and I took the kids back to the northeast, and we made sure to take them to Sharon on the 4th of July. The parade had gone away long ago due to budget cuts, and the lake crowd seemed smaller than I had remembered.

Still, the fireworks were incredible and I saw some of those same faces sitting in their beach chairs as if time had never passed. This 4th of July we're back home...in South Pasadena...continuing the new tradition we've started with the girls, a tradition they'll remember for their entire lives.

I can't tell you what it's like to be at the fireworks watching their faces as they watch the show. I'm thankful to have found another such a community with a sense of pride and patriotism, and i'm grateful to the brave folks who continue to make it possible to enjoy the freedom we all have. Have a great 4th of July.