We have a saying in our family — well we have a lot of sayings in our family that would make absolutely no sense to the normal family — but, one of the sayings in our family is, “Lord God Miss Bobby.”
Miss Bobby (actually Mrs.) was my late mother-in-law, and a former visitor to her house — I’ll not call any names as to protect the innocent — used that phrase on a regular basis. A very, very regular basis! That was decades ago, and that person has moved on, but the saying remains. It means something extravagant, something big, no, something huge, or, sometimes, nothing at all.
So, here we go, and you all can figure out which one of the aforementioned adjectives applies...Lord God Miss Bobby, it has been hot.
That said, I suppose this is Mississippi, and it is the Fourth of July weekend, and it is typically hot in Mississippi on the Fourth of July.
It is kind of hard to believe it is the middle of the year already, or just a little bit past that come Monday, the Fourth, and before we know it school will be starting back and we’ll be saying we can’t believe it is Christmas already.
The Independence Day holiday has always been one we enjoy celebrating. As I’ve said many times before, I remember way back to 1976 and America’s Bicentennial. All kinds of great celebrations were going on from small towns to the big cities.
Over in Newton, where I grew up, everybody painted up the fire hydrants in their front yards to look like all kinds of patriotic things. Patriotism was alive and well.
That year on the Fourth of July, which just happened to fall on a Sunday — my mom, may she rest in peace, said God set it up that way — and everybody in town, it seemed, swarmed the hillside at the First Baptist Church for a giant community picnic. It was a blast.
Now here we are getting closer and closer to 50-plus years later and I can’t help but wonder if we are all still waving the red, white and blue as we should be. I think we need to dig down deep and see if we can’t get a little bit of that Bicentennial spirit back. Lord God Miss Bobby, I really do think we need to! Let’s try.
Back to the heat of the last few weeks. It reminds me of one of my most memorable Fourth of July holidays. The year was 1980 and me and a group of friends packed a car, a van, and a little old trailer and headed to Colorado for a couple of weeks of camping in the mountains. I’ve told this story before, but it is worth telling again.
When we left Mississippi the temperature was around 100 degrees and by the time we got to Dallas it had inched on up to about 104 if my memory serves me correctly.
By the time we got just past Dallas we decided to make our stop for the night at a place called Possum Kingdom State Park. No kidding. As a matter of fact the name of the place was the reason we planned to stay there.
It was the Fourth of July and the place was slam, jam packed with folks celebrating the holiday. There was absolutely no room in the park that night so we pulled off a little side road above the lake and made our own campground out in the dark.
Not long after we got camp set up, we could hear the fireworks show begin and made our way out through this little field to catch a peek. By that time the blistering daylight had given way to a much more bearable evening and our private viewing area made for a perfect holiday spectacular...except for the rattlesnake....Lord God Miss Bobby, the rattlesnake!
Lots of Independence Days have come and gone since then, some of them we’ve celebrated more robustly than others. For certain, though, all of them we have celebrated, whether it be dueling fireworks with neighbors on the beach or dueling cool drinks with friends by the pool.
This year we will be relaxing alone at home. Not completely relaxing though, since we were gone the past weekend the grass will need tending, and the tomato garden and flowers will probably need some attention too.
We’ll cook something good on the grill. Relax on the porch — maybe it won’t be too hot, but we’ve got fans if it is. We’ll remember the Fourths of the past and we’ll probably make plans for things we want to do in the future. Perhaps a beach trip, that sounds like fun. Heck, maybe two!
One thing for sure, at our house the flag will be, as it always is, flying high at the top of her pole, all those old red, white and blue banners will be back on their hooks, patriotic music will be blaring, and we’ll be celebrating freedom just like we’ve done every year for the past 40-plus years as a family.
Lord God Miss Bobby let’s celebrate. And, let’s celebrate as one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Happy Fourth!
