Fourth of July celebrations became a show of might for the USA in Washington DC and Mr Lincoln sitting benignly in his mammoth memorial must have been cringing in horror as the tanks and fighter planes emerged in the President’s attempt to show the hardware of his country.
I’ve been on the ground for a couple of these celebrations and mine was more of a chance to hear the Beach Boys do their thing than for the military to invade the space as well as see yet another fireworks display light up the sky where the hardest thing to negotiate was actually getting out of the crowds.
In Canberra a line up formed for the gumbo.
Oh yes that delicious slop of stewy meat or shellfish in a bowl with the less than tantalising mouthful of okra in the binding roux that Louisiana cooks master at an early age.
At least it’s better than chitterlings that are anathema to my sensitivities but are part of that southern food you must try once.
The ladies dressed up for the party in the mandatory red white and blue and the blokes wore their suits.
But a good party was had by all.
Former Qantas regional chief Allan Williams came for the party and reckons everyone still wants to talk about his former job but he’s happily enjoying retirement while the mothers of the soon-to-be-married couple looked a Yankee picture in their homage to how to make red, white and blue look so colourful among the suits.
Give me the Beach Boys any day, tanks and planes don’t make my celebration.
