Meme: Sunday Brunch

"When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I
am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Erica writes, "I wrote this week's meme in honor of our country's Independence Day on Monday, but really it can apply to ANY country, so if you are outside the United States, just apply the questions to your country!"


1) What do you like the best about living in the United States?
The personal freedoms I enjoy as a citizen. They cannot be had in a similar amount or fashion in any other country on the globe.

2) What do you like the least about living in the United States?
The extraordinary stupidity and narrow-miindedness of the vast majority of its citizens. If any other country were as arrogantly stupid, they'd have been bombed out of existence. This is reflected, sad to say, in the pettiness of its elected leaders -- vapid, insipid, arrogant and therefore extremely dangerous to all and sundry.

3) What are your plans for July 4th? (If you are not American, when is your Independence Day and what do you usually do?)
Nothing special as my wife has to work and will likely get "hung out" by her replacement, thereby having to work 16 hours straight in conditions that the majority of us would find antediluvian and unacceptable -- temperatures in the eighties and nineties, nary a breath of air stirring, overwhelming stench of urine and feces and (oh joy!) vomitus as residents out with family or friends for the day return after indulging in food and drink inimical to their weakened alimentary canals and clashing with the prescribed drugs that assure their continued survival. That is life in a nursing home and a fate that terrifies me.

4) Describe your most memorable July 4th memory.
The time was 1976, our country's sesquicentennial. My partner, the kids and her mother were off on a trans-continental tour of Canada. Our food co-op order arrived and included two cases of Georgia peaches which had to be canned. If you've ever done this, you know what I am talking about - blanching and slicing the fruit, packing the jars, making a simple syrup, de-bubbling the jars, heating in a water bath to kill bacteria, slow cooling under cover to avoid cracking and/or bad seals. I had the day off and was slated to work the remainder of the week -- 14 hour shifts that started at ten o'clock in the morning and ended after midnight. So I started very early in the morning and as the steam from the blanching pot filled the kitchen I opened the porch door for a little breeze. Soon the water bath was ready and the temperature really started to climb, so windows were flung open to catch the slightest wisp of air. Midday brought a merciless sun in a cloudless sky and the temperature soared into the high nineties - unusual at any time and very odd that early in the season in a city on Lake Champlain that had only rid itself of ice seven or eight weeks earlier. (Yes, both the city of Burlington, Vermont and Lake Champlain have ice well into spring.) Sweat was pouring off me as I sliced and canned the day away. I was just putting the finishing touches on the last rack to be lowered into the water bath as the first fireworks were shot from the breakwater. No sooner had I placed the cover on the kettle but BOO! I was scared nearly spitless by a practical joker of a friend who'd stopped by to collect me to go watch the fireworks from the bar atop the Radisson Hotel. No way, José. I stank, I had another hour of processing and I was exhausted. He left me with a six pack of Heiniken and admonished me to take life easier. My six pack and I I crawled up on the back roof and watched the fireworks while the last of the peaches simmered away. A breeze finally started up off the water and things were ahush as fog formed over the harbor. It was magical up there on the roof, away from mosquitoes and petty annoyances, the lower half of the city shrouded in fog, with rockets racing skyward, exploding out of this thick white blanket reflecting the moonlight that covered the lake. Later, cleaning up the last of the six cases of peaches I'd canned that day, I was shaken from my reverie by a phone call from my significant other, regaling me with tales frm her trip through Canada. Finally, sometime after two in the morning, I turned in, a very tired puppy. It was the last time I saw fireworks up close and personal. It may have been the happiest time I have ever been in this life. It certainly was the most memorable Fourth of July I've ever had.
5) If you could go back in time and visit any period of time in our country's history, when would it be and why?

I'd like to visit the early years of the Twentieth Century, after the end of World War I. It was a time of great promise in this country. The spirit of the populace was more hopeful than ever before or since.

Enjoy your weekend!

Play along with The Sunday Brunch -- get your own copy of the questions and leave a link to your answers in the comments here.