Post # 123 August 1st
We made it through hot, hot July! I keep reminding my daughter of one September 1st when we wore our new winter coats, and we needed them. Amarillo used to celebrate Labor Day in the most wonderful way. We have a beautiful park-- a very large park with 2 huge duck ponds, lots of trees, grass, & a botanical garden across from the hospitals/major medical area part of town. Medi-Park it is called. For years on Labor Day night Amarillo Symphony played at the park, coordinated with wonderful fireworks and it was just awesome. Because parking at the park was very limited, you could leave your car at Target and ride a big red bus to the park. My kids and I loved it. It was an extra special time to me because it was fun, free, classical music, gorgeous fireworks and Labor Day was the only holiday I did not have to share my kids with my ex-husband. It was MY holiday, even better than Christmas for me. The first year we attended was 1991. My 4 kids ranged from 5 to just turned 12 and it was the sweetest time. Before we hit the teenage years. We packed a quilt, a picnic, and our coats because it was suppose to be a chilly night and we rode the bus to the park. It was estimated that 40,000 people attended. All afternoon and evening multiple buses ran from Target to the park. It was pretty chilly when the fireworks were over at 10:30 p.m. so all those people that had ridden the bus over several hours time earlier suddenly wanted to leave the park at the same time. There were 4 lines and buses just ran in circles...it was only a 4 mile round trip. I'm not a very pushy person, in fact one of the least pushy of 40,000 people evidently because me and my kids, one of my friends & her kids along with about 10 other people were on the very last big bus out of the park that night, at about midnight. We were freezing. I hope this Labor Day evening I am freezing. Sadly, we do not have that event anymore. Attendance almost tripled over the years and just got too big for all of us to fit in the park. I was always concerned about the veterans anyway. The VA Hospital was right there and I wondered if the exploding fireworks in the dark sounded like bombs and war to them.
I started pulling up the garden plants today and put them in the compost bin. No point continuing to water them. The ten day forecast includes 6 days over 100, the coolest day 98 and at best a 10% chance of rain on a few days. I did leave my tomatoes and watermelons.
I just finished a really good book..... How to Bake a Perfect Life by Barbara O'Neal. It is a life/trials/family/love story. I like one of the quotes in the book ... "The best smell is bread, the best savour salt, the best love that of children." Graham Greene
Remember last week the posts about me getting a letter from the U. S. Census Bureau saying I would get a form to fill out? I thought it was government waste of time, materials, postage when just receiving the form with that warning on the envelope would have been enough to catch my eye? I mailed it the day after I received it. Today I got a postcard saying "you should have received...please fill it out and mail it back." GRRRRRR! Couldn't they have at least waited to see what addresses did not return the survey???? Like in a month or two? The letter arrived on 7-27, the form on 7-28 and the postcard on 8-1.
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