Friday, July 4, 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA !




















Happy Birthday America !!!
These are family photos. I thought they would be appropriate for today.
While there are wonderful events going on, we ended up just staying at home, sad to say. The fighter jets that flew over the George Bush Libray, usually pass over our house, but I guess they went another direction this year.
My daughter "charcoaled" some meat, and I do mean "charcoaled" instead of barbequed. I had to pull the burned outside off of all of the chicken, which she cooked first. Her steak that she cooked later was okay but my grandson said it was too spicey. (Whatever happened to a little salt, pepper, maybe a little lemon juice, rubbed with garlic, or barbeque sauce! ) Tasted like charcoal, too. She said she used a mesquite mariande on it and that burned. I thought that she was taking after Daddy. In his later years, he loved to barbeque on holidays. He wouldn't wait on the fire to burn down , but poured on the lighter fluid to make the fire bigger. So, the barbeque always tasted like charcoal and lighter fluid.
My daughter got up this morning and made barbeque, mashed potatoes, barbeque sauce, and rolls. And a frozen apple pie with Cool Whip for dessert. She also got a small watermelon that they are eating now while watching fireworks on tv.
Normally we don't eat in the middle of the day, unless it is a quick sandwich or bowl of cereal.
But, she wanted all of us to eat before the oldest had to go to work this afternoon. So, I spent the afternoon eating and watching a program about the American Revolution on the History Channel.
That was about all there was on tv. I'm amazed at how inappropriate the programming on tv has become. On D-Day, there was absolutely not one movie about it, and, today, there was not one appropriate movie or program on, other than on the History Channel. Alfred Hitchcock movies just don't work when you are looking for something on the order of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" . The news programs seemed to do better with a bit of information as to what is going on in the country, and only CNN had very much coverage of the hostage release. Even the Western channels were a bust.
I wonder why stations that are supposed to have old western movies, are having so many old tv westerns instead. I didn't like any of those. I can tolerate Gene Autrey, but that's the only one. I got so sick of "Gun Smoke" when it was on, that I still don't want to spend a minute watching it now. Those stations don't make it easy to contact them, either. Surely, they can find some good old Tim Holt movies to show. They show them so seldom, but the really bad ones, like those awful "spaghetti westerns", they show over and over, and sometimes even on both channels.
I can't help but wonder if the people who are selecting tv programs are a product of the same education system that is producing the current crop of architects who have absolutely no sense of creativity or design. I think the tv program selectors must be some of those kids who play computer games or play with their cell phones during class. They don't have a clue about history, or even quality.
My daughter had suggested that, instead of going to the George Bush Library to watch fireworks, we might join some of her friends, who also don't like to participate in things, in a parking lot to watch from a distance. According to them, people even take their barbeque grills to that parking lot. Doesn't sound like any fun at all. You can't hear the orchestra, or the program that goes with the fireworks, that way, or tour the museum, taste the watermelon, hear the entertainment, or even take pictures with the historical characters. You just need to be there, I think.
One thing that I did do today is to start another drawing of a memory of when we were in elementary school, during WWII. Every morning, we marched around a large room, led by someone who carried our flag, and we all sang patriotic songs, after the whole school had participated in a flag ceremony at the flag pole. I'll post that one when I get further along with it.
I hope that you did / are doing something memorable today to observe the history of our great country. Be safe!
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