Friday, July 1, 2011

Favorite Things Friday - July 1st

It's July, it's hot, must be Oklahoma.  The Weather Channel says near record highs for today, 103 F (39.4 C).  One of my most favorite things this time of year is air conditioning.  I'm old enough to remember not having air conditioning and sleeping in the basement when it got too hot in the summer.  Unfortunately the clay soil and high water table here in Oklahoma isn't conductive to basements, most homes don't have one. 

Another favorite this week is the upcoming 4th of July holiday.  It means a 4 day weekend as we get Monday and Tuesday off work.   When I was a kid, 4th of July meant a trip to Grandma's house.  From there all of my Mom's family would troop to one of the local lakes for a picnic and swimming.  Not much better than that when you are 6 years old and get to spend the whole day swimming and eating grandma's fried chicken and potato salad (plus Ding Dongs, a personal favorite in those days).   

More recently, we usually spend one day of the holiday weekend with friends from work.  You'd never know these mild mannered guys are actually closet pyromaniacs.  One friend has a class ?? license and is allowed to purchase and shoot the very large fireworks.  He always has a wonderful fireworks display at his home out in the country (beats fighting the traffic to watch the city display). 





On the 4th we usually head to Kiddo's grandma's (my mom).  Eat fried chicken and potato salad, which Kiddo will tell you is better than any one's in the whole world. 

So Happy 4th of July to those in the US.  Happy Canada Day to the Canadian portion of blog land.  Happy Friday to everyone else. 

Check out more Favorite Things over at Shay's Quilting in My Pyjamas. 

13 comments:

Marg said...

Oh that sounds so good. I hope you have a fabulous long weekend.
Happy 4th July Kate.

LuAnn said...

I remember days before air conditioning when I would sleep with my head at the foot of the bed to get the cross breeze from the windows. Glad for the a/c now. We barbeque over the July 4th, but your Mom's fried chicken and potato salad sound awfully good. Have a good holiday.

Kate said...

My poor husband remembers the days before AC - ours went out last June for three days! Luckily it was not quite as hot as this June. He was considering sleeping at work. Happy Fourth!

Chris said...

I grew up without AC too and don't know how I did it, LOL.

My middle daughter will be 21 on the 4th. How time flies!

thea said...

Thanks for sharing the memories, new and old. Have a Happy 4th of July!

Sara said...

It's about 10C here, which the internet says is about 50F - COLD! except we've got the fire going, so inside it's a nice toasty 29C (84F)

It's silly isn't it that you should have your aircon on to make it more like our temperature (outside) while I am doing the exact opposite, and even more so that in six months time, we'll both switch.

Annoyingly, you can't get fireworks in Australia anymore, except for two weeks of the year in one of the little territories. I wish we could have a fireworks display in our backyard, that would be awesome :)

Marti said...

That sounds like a enjoyable weekend. One of our neighbors must have a license for the big fireworks. I guess we won't get to watch his fireworks from our backyard this year since we are under burn ban. Have fun with yours!

Unknown said...

Your weekend sounds like a lot of fun! I am not sure if we will see fireworks this year or not - the crowds are so crazy! We will BBQ and have potatoe salad, beans and watermelon! Yum...some of my favorites!

Shay said...

My first thought is that I must have your Mom's fried chicken recipe . If kiddo says it's the bomb - she's probably right.

It seems like Americans make a much bigger deal out of July 4th than we do out of Australia Day. That's because we are largely apathetic!

I hope you enjoy your ultra long weekend. Sounds like fun! Fireworks and good food! EWhat's not to love!

Im also old enough to recall sleeping on the bathroom floor as a kid when they weather was stinking hot because we didnt have AC either! In Summer cranking up the air to freezing is totally one of my favourite things. Stay cool!

Paulette said...

I too remember growing up before air conditioning (until I was in my mid-teens, anyway...and then we got a "window shaker" which cooled about 2 rooms downstairs). My dad installed a barn fan in the attic, but so that it pulled the hot air out of the upstairs and generated a breeze through the windows on those hot and muggy WI summer nights.

Now I'm craving fried chicken and potato salad! Happy 4th!

Lynne said...

Ah, happy memories of childhood - aren't they great? Traditions are also a good thing most of the time.

Happy Independence Day.

AnnieO said...

An extra day off sounds heavenly! My boss occasionally talks about doing 4 12-hour shifts so there is a three day weekend every week. Not sure I can get the staff to agree to that but the patients might like it all right!

Sounds like you have great memories of past 4ths and many more memories to make. Enjoy!

Darling Jill Quilts said...

I was just thinking this afternoon that I am so thankful for A/C!