It’s here! Definitely! Finally! Well, all right, it’s nearly here, just six days away. We’re talking about the Fourth of July, of course, which for the third straight year lands on an inconvenient midweek weekday, so you don’t really know which weekend counts as the holiday, so you try to sneak in both and stay away from work for 11 or 12 days, then the boss calls and business starts to suffer and pretty soon you find yourself having to rent the beach house just to pay the taxes as the limitations of working by Zoom become all too apparent. So, happy Fourth and take time to revel in your freedoms.
In 2025 the Fourth-of falls on a Friday, so we’ll have an unambiguous three-day weekend in which to remember our amendments. Keeping in mind the coincidence that this issue hits the streets on June 28, the 273rd birthday of James Madison, the man who wed the woman who in folklore introduced ice cream to America and never made a Jefferson nickel off it, Ms. Dolly Madison. Just desserts on a hot summer Independence Day.
With full-time lifeguards, twice-weekly refuse collection (a seasonal favorite!), a Post Office stocked with Amazon boxes, softball and soccer afield and afoot, Molly Davis’s Camp program kicking in July 1, plus next week’s Fourth-of-July games (oddly enough on the actual Fourth), Saltaire’s in standard summer mode. Likewise, the Yacht Club, with binders full of activities complementing its good food, swift sailing and fierce tennis. And yep, s’wonderful, s’marvelous, S’mores galore at the annual Village Broadway beach party, Friday, July 5, 6:30 p.m., said S’mores smorgasbord stashed safely un-melted in a fireproof vault.
We’ll also be formally dedicating the rejuvenated 14 Bay Prom sometime next week, so when the notices drop, drop by to see Saltaire’s latest edifice complex.
Of course, we chose the July 4 holiday for all these things because it’s an easy date to remember. Every American, no matter his educational level or situational awareness, knows July 4 is the day of the British general election, so prepare to pop the cork to toast not one but two victories over the Tories – 1776 by us, and 2024 by what the British persist in spelling Labour.
