We had a National Holiday

A serious conversation

In case you didn’t notice it, we in the U.S. celebrated Independence Day yesterday, as well as on the previous three or four days. If you don’t live in the U.S.,you probably couldn’t help but hear about it from one or more of our ever-boastful citizenry.

I took the picture above while waiting for the fireworks display that we attended yesterday. That was the culmination our long holiday weekend. Let me tell you a little about what happened previously.

On Saturday and Sunday our granddaughter, Maely, played in a baseball tournament. Cindy and I were there for all four games. Maely was the only girl in the entire tournament and she played well. Though her team, The Bombers, did not win the tournament, the team that knocked them out voted Maely as her team’s Most Valuable Player. That took some of the sting out of the loss.

From the fourth game we rushed north to Monticello, Indiana to take a ride on the Madame Carroll paddlewheel boat on Lake Freeman. We would be gently cruising around the lake until the fireworks display would take place. While we waited for the fireworks we would be entertained by the exuberant DJ and the antics of those who chose to start their heavy drinking early.  What fun!

We started out in the enclosed lower deck, but soon moved up to the next higher deck which was not enclosed. It was still hot, but there was fresh air. Unfortunately most of the serious drinkers were also on that deck. For quite a while they were constantly moving around, searching for an attractive person with a compliant attitude. As the evening wore on they appeared to become less concerned with the attractiveness of the people; just so long as they were compliant.

By the time the fireworks were ready to start, most of the crowd was highly intoxicated. There is nothing quite like watching a large group of drunk patriots squealing and laughing as fiery aerial bombs explode overhead. Near the end of the display it started to rain. At that point the fair weather patriots rushed for cover.

After the (fireworks) display, and after the rain ended, the drinking and the search for bedmates picked up tempo. One fellow sat a laughing girl on a chair and proceeded to give her a lap dance. All of his friends used their phones to video the event. Perhaps you can find it on Facebook. The fellow with whom she had arrived, not the dancer, finally came out of his stupor and staggered over to reclaim her. She stumbled away with him.

Another fellow, who appeared to be drunk before he got on the boat, had been attempting to chat up every woman he came across. At one point he saw Cindy and sloped his way towards her; no doubt to slur sweet nothings in her ear. But then he saw me frowning and decided to move on.

The trip back to the dock seemed to take forever, but we eventually got there. Those of us who were sober were scrambling to get off as soon as we could.

I hope that all of the drunken seekers of companionship found what they were looking for, whether in a warm bed or a drunk tank. There were probably a few new friendships started and a number of STDs exchanged. Happy Independence Day!