Hope is a thing with feathers…..
I was going through my files and found a recipe for HOPE cake.
Not dated, not accredited, just a print out. I have no memory of ever making it….it sounds great, though – Pineapple and orange pound-cake with a cream cheese honey icing….is HOPE Honey-Orange-Pineapple …???Eggs????
Google and discover.
Monday, really Big Fourth Celebrations here in America’s Hometown (that would be Plymouth, not to be confused with all those other America’s Hometowns). Parade with lots of fire trucks and police trucks, all with sirens blaring. Politicians smiling big, waving like the Queen of England, shaking hands; floats with people tossing candies into the crowd. Youth sports teams and other groups of young people, waving their trophies high. Bands, oh those bands. Marching bands, jazz bands, and even rock bands on floats…..and a group from the Priscilla Beach Theatre did a number from A Chorus Line in front of the Grandstand.
ONE
(Singular Sensation)
Kay and Bunk were there on their red, white and blue bicycles…this image is from another year…..there’s photo another of Bunk at July 4th – Plymouth MA
Cheering, waving.
Dragonflies like crazy all morning. HUGE dragonflies.
The woman seated near me up on Cole’s Hill passed her sunscreen over to me as the morning wore one, Hawaiian Tropics coco-nutty SPF 50 or 70 or 85 – something uber screening for pale Irish skin.
…..Hawaiian Tropic, an old summer friend, shared by a new friend by location
Milling with the post parade crowd, old friends to catch up with.
Time to head home, buy some OFF and take a little nap to go back for the Phil concert.
Sprayed the OFF on, milled about, kept seeing people I knew, but not able to get up to them before they were lost in the crowd. And it was a crowd. Finally picked a spot where I could see the firework barges in the harbor that didn’t have trees crowding the view overhead AND see the bandstand.
A Bus comes down the blocked off street – the Philharmonic arriving!
They played all the usual suspects, as well as a Star Trek tribute (50 years since the show first aired) and a tribute to the King – Elvis Presley.
Last number – The 1812 Overture, of course.
And then the fireworks begin.
OOOOOWWW!
AAAAAAHHH!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
And then – and then a really big display, mostly low down, close to the water.
And I thought to myself,” It almost looks as if the barge is on fire.”
Denise Maccaferri Photography
Then nothing.
People around me started saying it was a pretty short show this year and were getting up to leave.
I had to get up so I wouldn’t get trampled by the people climbing up the hill to get to their cars.
Almost every announcement about the fireworks during the day included remarks about how expensive they were, it wasn’t too late to donate…..so a short show WAS a possibility.
I only live a couple of blocks from the waterfront, so I was home lickety-split.
An hour or so late, I found it there really was a fire on the barge.
And thus begins a week of promise that just kept going downhill……
As if Orlando weren’t bad enough, St. Paul, Baton Rouge and then Dallas….too much red blood on too many American streets….
Early this morning a little bird held on the the edge of my window screen,
and I thought of Emily Dickinson…Hope is a thing with feathers…..
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –That perches in the soul –And sings the tune without the words –And never stops – at all –And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –And sore must be the storm –That could abash the little BirdThat kept so many warm –I’ve heard it in the chillest land –And on the strangest Sea –Yet – never – in Extremity,It asked a crumb – of me.– Emily Dickinson
And I remembered the cake –
A Cake called HOPE
I said YES.
Edie Clark on my left; Michelangelo Wescott to my right – was this 5 years ago?
Feathers of hope, wafting this was way and that
