For the last 7 years (and many years before I began participating), it was a tradition each year for my sister and her family, Daddy and his ladyfriend Joyce, and me to attend New Bern's Fourth of July celebration at Union Point Park. This event was one of the highlights of Daddy's year and he was always so excited about it. He loved everything about it - listening to the US Marine Corps Band play, the funnel cakes, the celebration of patriotism, the weather (unlike most of us, Daddy loved hot weather; for him, the hotter the better) and the highlight of the evening -the fireworks. Every year the Marine Corps Band does a salute to the armed forces by playing the official theme song for each branch of service, and they ask anyone who is serving or has served in each branch to stand during the playing of their branch's song. The Navy song is "Anchors Aweigh", and my father always stood proudly, at attention, when it was played. He was a loyal Navy man until the day he died, even though he'd retired from the Navy 20 years ago. I was always so proud of him...proud of his service to our country, and proud that he was still an active and vital man even into his late 70's and early 80's. Proud of the man he was.
This year, of course, he was not there with us, but he was there with us very much in spirit, and in our hearts. What made this year even more poignant for me personally was that I missed last year's celebration - Daddy's last one - because I had to work. While traveling to the celebration, my sister, niece, nephew and I stopped off at Daddy's grave and left 2 miniature American flags and a long-stemmed red rose, and the lump in our throats never went away during the entire evening. During the playing of "Anchors Aweigh", I stood up, holding my father's picture of him dressed in his Navy dress whites, and wearing his bill cap from the USS Omaha (the ship he served on in WWII). I stood, tears streaming down my face, to honor my father: his memory, his service in the Navy and to commemorate all those other Fourths, when he was with us - happy, excited, joking and having a wonderful time.
The Fourth of July will always hold special memories for my sister and me of our dad, for so many reasons. It will be a bittersweet holiday for us for years to come. And this year a new tradition was born. We will honor Daddy in the same way every year during the playing of "Anchors Aweigh".
I love you Daddy, and I miss you. The fireworks were spectacular this year, better than we ever remember. You would have loved it.
Daddy and his ladyfriend Joyce,
having a grand old time at the
Union Point Park Fourth of July celebration, 2006
having a grand old time at the
Union Point Park Fourth of July celebration, 2006
