My friends and I celebrated 232 years of American Independence from Britain... in Britain. We realized the irony. Particularly when the Colonials were outnumbered by Commonwealthers (and former Commonwealthers)! Correction, the American's celebrated Independence Day and our British and former-Commonwealth friends celebrated "When-The-Americans-Ceased-To-Be-Our-Problem Day"!
We had a good old fashioned American cookout in my friend Jo's backyard. So what if the ruins of a 14th century Scottish Cathedral were visible on one side, and part of a 12th century chapel was built into another garden wall! And the traditional baseball game was replaced by a football (soccer) match! But the weather, which had been threatening to be rotten behaved itself, and Andy, our buddy from Tennessee fixed the best burgers we've eaten since we've been here! I made baked beans and an apple pie. Jo made chocolate chip cookies which were the hit of the party! (They don't have REAL cookies here!) Our friends chipped in with potato salad, strawberry shortcake, coleslaw, fruit salad, and more! We even managed to find some real watermelons! They were tiny, and grossly overpriced, but its not the Fourth without them! It was quite a spread. One that Uncle Sam would be proud of!
I missed the parade and fireworks we have back home, but who else had the opportunity to celebrate America's Birthday with 7 Americans, a Canadian, 2 Englishmen and an English woman, 2 South Africans, 3 Irishmen and an Irishwoman, a Chinese guy, and a Spaniard? That's not an opportunity that presents itself every July 4th!
(To see pictures from our International 4th of July, click on the title of this post!)
1 comment:
Now, was there a British flag with another flag flying under it saying, "Happy Birthday America! Love, Mum!"
Post a Comment