Our street celebrated the birthday of our country with a cookout. Neighbor Joyce met the new couple who moved into the house next to hers two days before and invited them to join us, but they already had other plans.

Jeff brought his gas grill and cooked for us. We supply our own meat (hot dogs and hamburgers), and he mans the grill. A special treat was his roasted peppers, cooked before the meats. Our contributions to the meal included chips and dip, pasta salad, lettuce salad, potato salad, fruits with a cream cheese sauce, carrot cake, chocolate cookies, and lemon milk sherbet.

Shawn took a photo of us at the table, which was better than any I could have taken. She offered to send it to me, for which I was grateful.

All the women offered to do dishes, but I prefer to do it alone. After everyone left, it took only 15 minutes to load the dishwasher and wash things that shouldn’t go in.

Later in the evening, Joyce at her house and I at mine, waited expectantly for the fireworks to begin. She watches from an upstairs window, and I sit on my front porch. For the 10 years I’ve been here, two households up the mountain set off a barrage of sparkling explosives. This year there were none!! We don’t know the people and have no idea why they didn’t do it this year. Shawn mentioned earlier that fireworks were to be done three nights in a row, the three neighboring towns taking turns. None of us went to see them. If we were disappointed, it serves us right for expecting a free show year after year! I think all the neighbors enjoyed our meal together.