God Bless America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I hear the words "God Bless America" I always get the image of Kate Smith singing it and watching "Yankee Doodle Dandy". George M. Cohan and the 4 Cohans and Kate Smith...icons of a dying breed, or maybe I should say Icons of a dead breed. Kate Smith gives me chills when she sings her song, and to me it is HER song...and I always get tears in my eyes listening to it. Yankee Doodle Dandy, well, I could watch that movie over and over again, and still find parts I've missed. This year, I never had the chance to watch it, it wasn't on any of our channels, which really surprised me. I get choked up at the end when George M. Cohan is dancing down the stairs of the White House, walks out into the street, and the military is marching singing his song, "Over There' and one of the guys says, "Don't you know this one?" Then he sings it.

When the kids were younger, we'd go to the parade, catch up with friends we'd see once a year, the kids would march in it with their church group, we'd come back home, have a cookout, and when it got dark we'd do our fireworks, and then have a blast with the Bottle Rockets.....usually, more often than not, they went a way we weren't expecting and I ended up with little scorch marks on my shirts or me and the kids screaming as we ran out of the way. Of course when we were finished, the smoke in the air and the smell of firecrackers almost overwhelmed you, but it was such fun seeing the kids laugh and run out of the way. We'd go in really late still laughing, fall into bed, and then wake up the next morning and see the mess we had to clean up....and since we usually set off 144 or more bottle rockets...what fun it was looking for those remains!

Then we moved here to GA. No letting off fireworks, no going to parades or seeing fireworks, or having a cookout, but this year was different. There was still no parade or letting off fireworks, but we did see fireworks and we went to a friend's house and had a cookout!

The fireworks were wonderful. Amber, Danny, and I went on the 3rd, and saw only the last 5 minutes, but they were rocking the truck with the blasts. On the 4th, Amber and I went and saw the show and it was incredible. Very pretty ones.

So, God Bless America, the best place on Earth to live!