What’s to Celebrate ?

Everyone usually likes a parade . . . even a short one, which perfectly describes the county’s annual July 4th celebration in this part of the VA Eastern Shore — short and very quiet too.

The Accomac (non-motorized) July 4th parade started at 10 a.m. right on time. And, as always, it began with a color guard. The drums were the only instruments —there are no marching bands, horns, and especially NO smiling politicians waving from convertibles.
Instead, there are LOTS of walkers, cyclists of all ages and skaters.
Bicycles decorated in red, white and blue with colorful attire.
And, other forms of transport too.
What’s not here are any cars or trucks, except a couple of fire trucks at the parade’s end, but no sirens are blaring.

Did I mention how short this parade is? It all ends very soon as you can see — 15 minutes from start to finish. The end spot is the county courthouse for a reading of the Declaration of Independence and ice pops.

No, we didn’t walk in the parade as we were at the county library helping with the Firecracker Book Sale (more on that later) and we had a great view.

Happy Birthday to U.S.

The above is excerpted from Adams' famous letter of July 3, 1776 in which he wrote to his wife Abigail his thoughts about celebrating the Fourth of July.

 

Adams (1735-1826) was instrumental in negotiating in favor of independence at the Continental Congresses (1774-78) and signed the Declaration of Independence. He and Thomas Jefferson, only signers of the Declaration of Independence later to serve as Presidents (2nd and 3rd) died on the same day — July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration.

And, James Monroe, 5th President and Founding Father, but not a signer of the Declaration of Independence, also died on July 4 in 1831. He became the third President in a row who died on this day. Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President, was born on July 4, 1872, and, to date, is the only President born on Independence Day.

July 4th memorable dates . . .

• In 1777, gunshots (13) were fired in salute at morning and as evening fell, on July 4 in Bristol, RI.
• Philadelphia celebrated the 1st anniversary in a manner familiar even today: toasts, 13-gun salutes, speeches, prayers, music, parades, troop reviews, and fireworks.
• In 1778, General George Washington marked July 4 with a double ration of rum for his soldiers and an artillery salute.
• In 1781, the Massachusetts General Court became the first state legislature to recognize July 4 as a state celebration.
• In 1791, the first recorded use of the name “Independence Day” occurred.
• In 1820, the first Fourth of July celebration was held in Eastport, Maine which remains the largest in the state.
• In 1870, the U.S. Congress made Independence Day an unpaid holiday for federal employees, but in 1938, Congress changed Independence Day to a paid federal holiday.

Happy Birthday U.S.A

Ice Cream & Music

One of the nicest things about small-town living is summer holiday celebrations that bring folks together especially when they include patriotic music and ice cream.
Last night we attended what has become an annual event in the neighboring town of Onancock in the past few — an old-fashioned Ice Cream Social and Band Concert that’s held outdoors on the town square, always on July 3.
Folks bring lawn chairs, blankets and many picnic before and during the concert. There’s a Kids Painting area where budding artists can create and then take home their artwork.
This event is sponsored by members of the Onancock Business & Civic Association, which provides and scoops the free ice cream and seconds are always encouraged. Music is provided by the volunteer CommUnity Band.

Tomorrow, July 4th, is the annual non-motorized holiday parade and the Firecracker Book Sale at the county library. We’re helping out at the sale, watching the parade, then going to a friend’s home later.

How are you spending the holiday?

Favorite Celebrity “Cook”

Years ago, chefs were only found in restaurants and a cook was in your own home, usually your mom.LONG before there was Ms. Deen or other celebrity chefs, the US had a favorite cook rated as the second most famous and popular woman just behind Eleanor Roosevelt — and she wasn’t even a real person.

Betty Crocker never existed. Aside from being a cultural icon, she is entirely fictional. She originated in 1921 when a Minneapolis milling company, Washburn Crosby Company, wanted a way to personalize answers to consumers baking questions. The name Betty was considered warm, friendly and all-American; Crocker was after William Crocker, a retired company executive. Betty’s replies were signed and her signature was by a company secretary who won a contest. It’s still used on products today.

In 1924, Betty Crocker made her radio debut with the nation’s first cooking show, featuring 13 actresses working from radio stations across the country. The Betty Crocker School of the Air became a national broadcast, airing for 24 years.

Betty’s first portrait appeared in 1936 and while changed over the years always accommodated General Mills’ cultural perception of the American homemaker as knowledgeable and caring. The widely circulated portrait reinforced the popular belief that she was a real woman. An artist brought together women in the company’s Home Services Department “blending” their features into an “official” likeness.
Betty’s portrait has changed over the years. No one has ever  posed as a model, rather the image is a composite of many women.

Betty’s face was recreated 8 times over the past 75 years. In 1955, she became younger and in 1980 thru 1986 became a “professional” woman. In 1996, “Betty” became multicultural acquiring  a darker, more “ethnic” look. The current image is a combination of 75 women of diverse backgrounds and age. Betty is only shown in head shots and never seen from the shoulders down.


The impetus for this post was finding a copy of Betty Crocker Good and Easy Cookbook on the local library’s sale table last week. It seems that the 1996 publication date was older than books the staff reserves for major book sales (like the Firecracker Book Sale this week). The $1 shown is the price paid — SOLD!

Even though we’re downsizing cookbooks, some things, like favorite recipes don’t go out of style, just get revised or updated.
 
I still have my original Betty Crocker Cookbook in the 3-ring binder. It was bought after moving into my first apt and still in use today, over 25+ years later.

In my mind, certain things go together like cooking and Betty Crocker. Sorry, Paula, Rachel, Ina, Giada, Alton and others, but she has a lot more years of popularity in her favor, even if she’s only a fictional character.

What about you — favorite chef or cook ?

Summertime Cruise Night

Cruisin' is a popular event in many towns on warm summer evenings. One such long standing seasonal event happens every Friday night in Somerville, NJ, where I once lived. Local businesses and restaurants stay open late and classic and vintage cars line the town's main drag, which is actually called Main Street

Earlier tonight, Grenville and I were able to do some cruising too as we admired these classic beauties after enjoying dinner at a Portuguese restaurant in town. We're back in our home state this weekend for another family event — a niece's high school graduation party happening Sunday. We came earlier to visit long-time friends and Grenville also plans to visit a rail yard on Sat morning. Why doesn't that NOT surprise anyone?

While touring Somerville, We noticed there were less vintage models than on previous visits. That could be since it's been a rainy week in NJ and with threatening skies during our visit. Many of vintage car owners prefer not to risk inclement weather. Some cars were leaving well before the event's usual end time of after sunset.
During our short walk around town, we saw some colorful classics — both front . . .

 

and rear views — vintage and hot . . .

 

Plus, a colorful summer sunset to end our visit.

Friday Funnies

Filling up . . .

Eastern Yellow Swallowtail on in a day lily

Backyard “Wildlife”

Yes, we have wildlife in our backyard. This little bunny comes regularly to munch away, IF only he would bring lots of friends so we could skip the weekly mowing.

And, there’s also a few garden frogs who like to hide in the wildflower garden. They blend in very well with the surroundings — as you can see.

We’re still waiting for the a penguin or more to drop in. Now, all we have are these garden flamingoes.

After all this isn’t The Frog & Flamingo.

Our Garden is Growing

Grenville set up the much smaller F&P veggie garden near the end of May planting doubles of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and cucumbers. While this is not a lot compared to previous years output of squash, beans, corn, beets, and lettuce, these veggies will be more than enough. They'll be supplemented with contributions from a friend’s larger garden, drop-offs that local gardeners leave at the  YMCA, and purchases at a couple of area farmers markets.

This week, we have one green pepper with others on the way. There are blooms on the eggplant (center), tomato (upper right) and cucumber (bottom right) plants.

Grenville is sure looking forward to some fresh 'mater sandwiches soon. I saw him standing in the garden with bread and mayo in hand this week.

Catching Up

Enjoyed all the great comments on last week’s Friday Funnies about the portable chicken coop. Grenville gets the credit for calling it a chicken RV. Can you tell that we have fun seeing what’s on the road with us?

It was great to read your comments on What’s on Your Key Ring and to see how few of these (or even none) other folks carry. When we finally get “smartphones” (ours are still “dumb” ones) we may follow the suggestion from Triumph and Odd Essay and just use a phone app instead. Thanks, Daisy for cluing me on the called key tags name;I also have one for the “Y” but it’s on a separate lanyard in with gym gear. Christer, we like your use of a padlock for a key ring.

The butterfly collage on the Flying Flowers post was created in Windows Photo Gallery (formerly Windows Live Photo Gallery) Free and similar to Goggle’s Picasa. 

However, unlike Picasa, it requires a minimum of 7 images for collage creation. WPG provides  management, tagging, and searching for digital photos, also an image viewer and a photo import tool to acquire photos from a camera or other removable media. 

WPG also lets you share photos by uploads to SkyDrive, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook. There’s no shortage of FREE editing and sharing SW available, just a shortage on time to try all the features.

But, it is a lot of fun as well.

Flying Flowers in F&P Yard

NO, there are not flowers with wings in the Frog & PenguINN gardens. Sorry to disappoint you and us too.

BUT, every day, we’re seeing more and more butterflies as perennials are blooming around the F&P yard in the (finally) summer temps here on the VA Eastern Shore.

So far, we’re spotted these varieties — painted lady, white sulphur, eastern yellow swallowtail, black swallowtail, zebra swallowtail, buckeye, silver spotted skipper, fire skipper, viceroy, and monarch as well as some we have not ID’ed.

  . . . flowers that fly and all but sing (Robert Frost)

The line above is from the poem, Blue-Butterfly Day, by Robert Frost, American post and holder of 4 Pulitzer Prizes for poetry. It foretells the coming of springtime when snow starts to melt, butterflies begin to come out, and flowers begin to bloom.

Blue-Butterfly Day
It is blue-butterfly day here in spring,
And with these sky-flakes down in flurry on flurry
There is more unmixed color on the wing
Than flowers will show for days unless they hurry.

But these are flowers that fly and all but sing:
And now from having ridden out desire
They lie closed over in the wind and cling
Where wheels have freshly sliced the April mire

Are there flying flowers in your yard ?