July 4th Celebration

Well, another july 4th has passed and what a great time was had by all! July 4th brings a lot of memories for me as do all holidays. The July 4th memories of being in my grandparents yard grilling sausage, peppers and onions. Fresh Iced Tea and homemade pickles. Climbing the apricot trees and picking bushels of apricots. And lots of really loud people (Italians tend to speak very loud) Really it was a much simpler time for us. My grandparents were very proud to be Americans. My Grandmother was fortunate to have learned the english language before arriving here and my grandfather learned immediatley after arriving. My grandfather worked in the steel mills long before the time of labor movements, and he and his brother made bread and sold it out of the side window of there home on the weekends! My grandfather said people would line up at 6am for the first loaves to come out of the oven. By the time I came along many years later many things had changed for my grandparents. They no longer sold bread out of the side window anymore they had a bakery. They were able to build a home with a yard for a large garden and many apricot trees. They really lived the American Dream! They really worked very very hard. I think sometimes that Americans may have lost sight of what generations before us went through to reach their goals. Here is something to think about. My grandparents never owned a color TV, a clothes dryer, my grandmother never drove a car, my grandmother made all (and i mean all) of her own clothes. My grandfather grew all of their vegtables. They canned fruit, made homemade sauce from the tomatoes in their garden. And this was when they could have afforded to have a lot of ammenities that others could not have. I once asked my grandmother, after my grandfather passed, why they never had all of those nice things, why had they continued to live so modestly even after they didn't have to and she said to me that it would have been a sin to live in such a way. It would have been embarrasing to live with all of those things while your neighbor or friends went with out! I was young then and it didn't mean much to me then but now when i look around and I see how people live (even me) big cars, and homes and trips.I think about what my grandmother said. Maybe if people lived more like my grandparents more modestly with thought for the next gerneration this country would be in better shape! I don't know if that is the case but it sure makes me think!