My dad was big on traditions that were part and parcel of his upbringing. Church every Sunday. Work before play. A place for everything used regularly.
Growing up in our house there were some items that I knew would be in the same location, year after year. Hell to pay if one messed with the order of things.
The broom hung on a hook next to the fridge. The luggage carrier used for the annual Florida vacation was billeted in the same place the other 51 weeks. And on the far side of the carport was a wooden pole.
Every July Fourth morning my dad, a World War II-era veteran, would plant that pole in the front yard and hang the American flag. We didn’t always go see fireworks or cook on the grill or go to the neighborhood pool on the Fourth, but we put the flag up.
Like most holidays July 4 has been co-opted by praxis that has little to do with the reason for the holiday. Most of us have love/hate relationships with these observances — we love the day off, we are inconvenienced that banks are closed and the mail isn’t delivered.
This Fourth, many will be part of the sweaty herd doing the big 10K. Some will go catch the baseball game, if only for the big fireworks show afterward. Others will find a place to tailgate to catch the pyrotechnics in other parts of town.
We’ll update Facebook so everyone knows our plans. Or better yet we’ll use our smartphones and update from where we are. We’ll tweet about how humid it is, how immoderate the eats at the ballpark are or that jerk that just flipped us off.
Some will start their Fourth tuckered from planning their Fourth. They will be worn to a nub from jostling at the shopping club with the other merrymakers pushing palates of hotdogs, buns, chips and suds. Tuesday, some will feel they need a day off to recover from their day off.
My dad was no exemplar (who is?) but the older I get the more I hold fast and dear the memory our day on July Fourth began by planting the flagpole in the front yard and hoisting the colors. At sunset we took it down.
America was not created solely on the Fourth. The Founding Fathers we were taught as schoolchildren to revere, in reality had moments that would have landed them on TMZ.
In Ohio this week, a Vietnam and Korean War veteran is in a rhubarb with a developer over his desire to fly the Stars and Stripes on a 14-foot flagpole outside his home. It would seem some are forgetting what we need to remember.
An Osterman July 4 started and ended a simple solemnity to show love of country. Dad, by example, remembered.
Jim Osterman lives in Sandy Springs. Reach him at jimosterman@rocket mail.com
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