Independent of our wives, Jean and I were busy Americans yesterday – Independence Day – between Noon and 6pm. First we visited the “This Place Matter’s” demonstration in front of Alki’s closed and ribboned Homestead Restaurant. (Ribbons and not bunting. They were yellow and not red-white-&-blue.) The sun came out for the moment of Jean’s recording and then retreated as we scampered off to Gasworks Park and the Celebrity Chef Fourth of July Salvation there. We arrived in the rain.
Below are an unattributed mix of snapshots (without fireworks) we took when we were not eating from the potluck at the Alki Lob Cabin Museum or the buffet table in the sponsors and noble seniors gated corral, which was fenced at the extreme most pointed and southern part of the Walllingford Peninsula, the best place to sit in the rain for five hours waiting for the show. We didn’t so sit, but the trio in the top-most photograph did – or told us they would. We left much too early to catch the show but none too early to get dry. (I, at least, am getting old and easily dampened in my enthusiasm.)
Seeing Seattle at about 4:45 pm Independence Day from Gas Works Park. And seeing the war-sized barge from which the evening's pyrotechnics would be ignited and launched. Gene conferring with Clay Eals about what to do with the video shot of the "This Place Matters" demo. They decided that Jean should edit it for youtube consumption. And he is at it even now.Geese Shall Safely Graze . . .. . . While celebrity chefs prepare the food line for the guests with red wrist bands. The time is 4:50 here. The line will open in ten minutes. Meanwhile outside there is brave Good Humor in the rainA child grasps her dolls and stays dry and under cover in a produce box.Hotter foods including Frankfurter and Nood' are consumed.OverheadGive me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door. And build strong fences along our southern borders, and get payment in advance from undocumented boarders.Brave Exposures with Heavy IndustrySubscribing to the Wallingford Senior Center's raffle while a young and ambitious Michael Mansfield reflects on independence.Rain GearStill early that eveningAround noon at Alki. Potluck in the West Seattle Log Cabin Museum courtyard and spirited preps for the "This Place Matters" demonstrationEither getting ready to demonstrate or lingering after it.
