Friday Five: Fireworks Edition

Sally over at Revgalblogpals brings us a crashing friday five:


I have to admit that I am chuckling to myself a little; how strange it seems for me a Brit to be posting the Friday Five on 4th July! I realise that most of our revgals will be celebrating in some way today, but I hope that you can make a little room for Friday Five! From my short stay in Texas my memories of the celebrations are of fireworks and picnics, one year we went in to central Houston to watch the fireworks and hear the Symphony Orchestra play, we were welcomed and included, and that meant a lot! So lets have a bit of fun:


1. Barbeques or picnics ( or are they essentially the same thing?)
Well, it's been a long time since I've been on a real, honest-to-goodness picnic, where you go to a park somewhere else (not your back yard),bring the picnic basket and the cooler with the potato salad, and get together with family and friends. You can certainly barbeque at a picnic, but to me, that's what a picnic is. Once our family had a spur-of-the moment, non-Fourth picnic by a lake with Kentucky Fried Chicken, which was a relatively new thing back then. I kind of miss picnics, but they're a bit more work than just the backyard barbeque.


2. The park/ the lake/ the beach or staying at home simply being?
I like to relax, so the park is best, as long as there is some "simply being" time penciled in! I also like an outdoor concert. The community I live in does a carnival over the 4th, a street dance, and special concerts.


3. Fireworks- love 'em or hate 'em?
I reallly like them, as long as they are not over-long, and parking is not too much of a headache. We used to be able to watch our community's fireworks from our backyard. Or, if we wanted a better view, we would walk a few blocks. That was the BEST. Our dog does NOT like fireworks, however.


4. Parades- have you ever taken part- share a memory...
I took part in our community's 4th of July Parade the first year I was here. The church had an anniversary banner, and another woman and I carried it, waved at people, and threw candy. We also had a few people ride in the church van (now defunct). It was really a good introduction to the community.


5. Time for a musical interlude- if you could sum up holidays in a piece of music what would it be?

Stars and Stripes forever, played by a band, while Marching in the Parade.

However, here is another interpretation: