djshirley.1
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4th of July Memories - 2008/07/04 22:25
Memories of the 4th of July are my favorite holiday memories...yes even better that Christmas.
Today marked the 46th annual Faraday Place 4th of July block party. My family moved on Faraday in 1963.. so we missed the 1st year. Plans for the party began as soon as school let out for summer. The street was blocked off first thing in the morning on the 4th. The typical schedule for the day was as follows......
10:00- Parade around Pine Glen...Kids, Teenagers, and Adults all prepared a costume to wear and various floats for transportation around the neighborhood. The costumes were either very Patriotic or very crazy...depending on the personality of the family    .
Following the parade... time was give to change clothes and prepare for games and contests for different age groups....While preparations were being made, the most important items were being prepared for us to consume. Huge trash cans were filled with every flavor of soda a kid could dream up, and then filled with tons of ice. Of course the adults had their trash can filled with the finest Pabst Blue Ribbon, Schlitz, Black Lable, and what ever other cheap beer that was popular back then.
11:00 Games and Contests...Sack Races,...Water Ballon toss,..Trycycle races,...Bycycle races,..Carry the egg in the spoon relay....Games for all the kids..which were fun but next were the Adult Games..
11:30...Pass the orange with the neck relay...and others I don't really remember except for One!
The Egg Toss! The adults would get with one partner and stand a few yards away from each other and have to pass the egg to their partner without breaking the egg. Each pair would take their turn and either remain for the next round or get eliminated....next round...the distance got moved further back each round until there was a winner. It was so fun watching our parents or the older teenagers get egg splattered all in their hair and face! One Time My Dad snuck in a hard boiled egg  but they got caught 'cause they dropped it and it didn'f break!
Man...I just couldn't wait till I was old enough to participate in the egg toss. Once I was allowed, it was like a rite of passage.
12:00 Lunch Time...Burgers and Hot Dogs...all you want....and remember those sodas....for a kid raised on Kool Aid....It was Heaven.....The memory of reaching all the way down to the bottom of the trash can....Ice..Ice..Ice Cold..in the Hot July heat fishing for that grape soda...or maybe an orange...root beer...All the sodas we wanted all day long     
1:00 THE MEN- Poker and Beer
THE HENS- Bridge and Gossip
The Kids- water balloon fights....and just free from any adult supervision..like were ever really were anyway.
3:00 THE TRUCK RIDE- Mr, Ryan had huge truck with an extention ladder that lay across the top along the length of the truck. He let all the kids and teenagers climb up and sit on the ladder in between the rungs and take us for a couple spins around Pine Glen.
5:00 POT LUCK Dinner
6:00 Entertainment- every year the kids and adults would make up some kind of comedy skit or dance routine (my sister and Laurie Johnson) or small play.
One of the early years the adults did a "Laugh-In" skit with the opening of the cardboard doors routine. One year, Ronnie Quinn, Bob Young, and myself did a "Dating Game" spoof where we were the 3 "female" dates for the poor voluteer contestant to blindly choose from.
7:00 Slide Show - As I mentioned...this year was the 46th year...Slide shows were shown of previous July 4th years...getting to see many of us grow up from very early ages.
The Shamrock Alumni that were a part of many of these parties include:
Debbie, Tinki, Cathy, Ryan- I think they started it all.
The Ericksons....I'm sorry I can't recall there names or their daughter name presently.
Carol and Laurie Johnson
Roy and Ross Lovell
Paul and Todd Jackson
Nelson and Miriam Romo
Lisa Lester
Joyce and Fletcher Poole
Rick, Jeff, Julie, Blanchard
Bob and Allison Young
Ronnie and Connie Quinn
Lauren, Doc, and Sunday Palmer
Connie and Elliot Heath
I think the Rowlands attended a few years
Joe and Jeff Finerty
Pam, Becky, and Doug Foreback
Cindy Detwiler
Chuck and Leslie Nichols
Lisa, Cheryl, and Tripp Pair
Jeff and "sister" Windorski
John and Laura Tucker
Johnny and Neicey Vick
Kurt Cobb
I know that Debbie Ryan started a block party tradition after mmoving to her new neighborhood.
I stopped today...walked down Faraday and was very glad to see so many people carrying on the tradition.
There was only one family there from my day...Mr. and Mrs. Foreback which were great to see....but what a strange strange feeling to walk down past the house and street I lived for so long and to feel a stranger.
I so desperately wanted to go visit my old house and look around the back yard. Haven't been since April 1978.
OH yeah....About 5 years ago I made it a tradition in my restuarants that If we were working on the 4th... I cooked hot dogs and hamburgers....popsicles... and of course dragged the whole staff outside to the parking lot for an egg toss competition. The stores are always dead on the 4th and the guest would usually come outside to watch.
Sorry for the self-indulgent post...but I'm trying to get some of the above alumni to the site.
Jeff Shirley '78
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