Fourth Memories

I don't have many memories of July 4th. I don't know whether I should or not. But there are three that come to mind. In my formative years, I used to attend the local fireworks at Smallwood Village with the neighbors. The memory I have from recent years is when some friends and I went down to DC for the fireworks a few years back. My friends got free food from the Hare Krishnas and decided to take a walk down to the Lincoln Memorial after the fireworks.

But the memory that prompted me to talk about memories, was something neat that I got to do when I was in college. One summer I worked at a movie theater. The manager was no-nonsense and didn't really seem to like us. But this one night he did. When we had started the last set of movies, he opened up the roof hatch and let us climb up on the roof to watch the fireworks for a bit. As I look back on it, there wasn't anything really remarkable about the memory. I just suppose it was the combination of our tough manager showing us some love and being able to be on the roof that kinda set it apart.

And I think that's the great thing about memories. We all have them and we have them for various reasons. What's significant for one person, may be trivial for someone else. But it doesn't make them less meaningful.

Happy Independence Day!