Happy July 4 to all! I'm starting with an English blend in an English pipe (965, Britannia) and
will move to Granger or Lanes in a Missouri Meerschaum or Dr. Grabow after noon. I have
a ship's colors flying off the porch, flown off the stern in port or off the main mast under way.
I may go for fireworks later, though I don't like the crowds. I wish they would turn off the recorded
music and just let the percussion of the fireworks themselves be the music. Pyrotechnics is
an art form. Grucci on Long Island are the master craftsmen of the form in the Western
Hemisphere, but there are many fine fireworks technicians who perform throughout the U.S.
When I can have just the pyrotechnics and their sound, I'm transfixed like a kid. It's my favorite
part of July 4. Also, I bought some high fat free range ground beef for burgers. Get the
85-15 or higher, not the lean 90-10, if you can. In burgers, fat is good. Best burgers in the
world at Keith's in Memphis Missouri, home state of the MM's. Anyway, Happy Fourth!
Oh, one more thing. I'm supposed to be fifth generation descendent of Colonel Prescott,
the commander at Bunker Hill (Actually Reed's Hill). The colonialists lost the battle, but took
relatively light losses to the British losing over 1,000. It dawned on them, they were't fighting
rustic rubes. They shipped in reinforcements immediately. Colonel Prescott supposedly said,
"Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes." Also, he had his men dig in really well, and
build a stone embankment on the vulnerable side. (Mom always said of her Grandma Prescott,
"Yes, but she was really a Woodward," as if the Prescott name wasn't quite lofty enough. I just
laugh. Every family is an "old" family, or we wouldn't be here.
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