Do you remember the song, from around the time of the Bicentennial, with the line: “We must be doing something right to last 200 years!” Optimistic, patriotic, and oh so American in its celebration of just 200 years.
The line comes back to me every Fourth of July, because the Bicentennial is the only Fourth I remember well. Our family and my painter friend and her family – a backpack child each – hiked up to Lost Lake on the Kenai Peninsula. Planning to meet and spend the night, we each went up a different route, and we arrived to find a frozen lake amid snowfields. From the distance we could see the dad wrestling with a broken camp stove, and their energetic two-year old repeatedly circling the tent – both tiny in the mountain landscape.
We spent a cold night, and in the morning drank instant coffee and ate, by the handfuls, the cake with red, white, and blue frosting I’d carried up the trail in an aluminum pan. We packed up, walked down, and never forgot that Fourth.
This year is memorable for the wrongs the current American administration is doing. I Googled the lyric and found it used ironically in the opening scene of Robert Altman’s “Nashville.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP94wyr5KB4)
I’m failing to tie this together. But I want to wish you a good holiday, and I’ll end with a hopeful phrase Lady B’s mom might remind me of: “This too shall pass.”
her spirits rose... 
Thanks for positive thoughts about this all-American holiday.
Sent from my iPhone
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You are welcome Jane, I’m trying but not feeling very positive!
Such a memorable 4th of July celebration. But then I remember that we went back to the same spot one month later, and it was sunny and warm and peaceful. We can only hope to see a bit of that here. The best thing for me on that Bicentennial July 4th was hearing you and family arriving to our little scene of doom and gloom with cheer, hope, an expert fire starter, and cake and brandy. Here’s to you and to a bit of cheer!
Thank you Carol! And I remember that when we returned, your husband dove in the lake! I try to be hopeful, but find myself sunk in the gloom and doom because of harm already done, and more promised. But thanks again – memorable trip – all of those backpacking adventures were memorable. One could also speak of the flies at Bench Lake – and the commemorative T-shirts you made!
I’m coming to your blog from Vicki Lane’s. Yes, these are dark times, and I do hope they will pass. Everyone needs to keep vigilant and do all they can — protest, write or call representatives, stand up for people being bullied. Do good in whatever capacity. That’s the only way to make sure they will pass.
Agreed. Small protest we attended in our little town last weekend, letters,calls – resist