Some great ol’ Americana postcards I found in honor of this day.
“Then ring the bells and fire the guns …..” at cats, apparently:
Ah, the good ol’ days.
Sooo, have a freedom-loving, flag-waving, cat-shooting kind of 4th, everyone!!
Some great ol’ Americana postcards I found in honor of this day.
“Then ring the bells and fire the guns …..” at cats, apparently:
Ah, the good ol’ days.
Sooo, have a freedom-loving, flag-waving, cat-shooting kind of 4th, everyone!!
Lemme guess – that top one’s for Red, right?
I love the third one – great composition!
When I was a kid, during the early sixties, we lived on a quiet street with lots of families with kids. Our dads would pool their money and hit the fireworks stand and put on a show in the middle of the street. We’d congregate in one yard, moms in lawn chairs, kids on the grass and watch the spectacle, for like, an hour. While we were waiting for it to get full dark, the littler kids would be setting off snakes in the gutter, or those little cardboard chickens that tooted sparks until their heads blew off or running around with sparklers.
All the dads smoked cigars that night, for punks, and they set up the rockets in glass Coke bottles. This was a fairly brew-driven event, but I don’t remember any real accidents.
Several of the dads were doctors, in any case, including my own.
In the daylight, our dad would take us up to the rock quarry and set off tin-can rockets and gourd bombs for us.
Fun times.
Uhm – that little boy is obviously about to blow not only the cat’s tail off but his own hands! Please – someone – take the firecrackers away from him!!
As a botanist, I have to wonder what the significance of the goldenrod (upper right corner of the top card) is. You don’t see that much in Independence Day imagery any more.
Love the cards. I get the sense that the patriotic holidays were a much bigger thing years ago. More of a community thing, where everything shut down for the day.
I grew up in a state that technically banned fireworks (other than the “professional” displays). I never got into the bottle-rocket or Catherine-wheel setting off that some kids did. (Well, being a girl is probably part of that, too).
Damn French cat! Take that! And some more of this! America, hells yeah!
ricki — I was wondering about the goldenrod, too, actually. Do you know that particular flower’s meaning, by any chance?
Sal — I loved sparklers when I was a kid!
N’fly — Hee hee. Hold still, kitty.
I looked up a bunch of those “the meanings of flowers” websites (you know, in Victorian days, you could convey a lot by the bouquet you sent? Even the color of particular flowers was important.)
Nothing on goldenrod there.
However: it was once believed to be a medicinal plant.
it is the state flower of Kentucky and Nebraska (perhaps the card was specific for one of those states?)
it was thought to grow in places where treasure was buried (hence the name, I suppose).
I don’t know – I was really hoping for something like, “In World War I, goldenrod was symbolic of wishing a safe return for the troops” or something like that.
ricki — So cool you did that. Hm. Maybe it’s the treasure thing — freedom is a treasure type thing.
Although that seems rather obscure, actually.
The Kentucky/Nebraska thing makes more sense, I suppose.