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Show I . THIS KIU$INESS I PiS&f lllillfflll SUSAN THAYER Wfljl 'sister's supply, too. Oh, blissful, joyful night! We youngsters didn't know or care, then, that Independence Day marked the founding of a philosophy philos-ophy of freedom in America. We were too busy living our freedom. NOTE FROM A HAPPY CHILDHOOD When I was a little girl, Fourth of July loomed second in importance impor-tance to Christmas in our town. For weeks ahead we were getting get-ting ready. Fourth of July morning morn-ing always dawned hot and clear, to the crackling of small fireworks. fire-works. After breakfast father got busy stringing up wire along the sidewalk for the Japanese lanterns lan-terns to be hung on. The lanterns had been, waiting for this all winter, win-ter, in a big box in the attic, along with the Christmas tree ornaments. orna-ments. We children were torn between the fascination of lantern hanging and the making of peach icecream uuwh ceiiar in tne freezer. And, of course, our store of fireworks and sparklers and noise makers, which we alternately squandered and hoarded against the evening. And then, as the long twilight came on, festivities really started. Every street, every yard in the neighborhood became a fairyland, decked with candle-lit, gently swaying lanterns. In front of the school, a band struck up. And in the school yard itself, an icecream stand dispensed cones chocolate and vanilla in seemingly inexhaustible inex-haustible quantities to seemingly insatiable children in exchange for pink tickets, of which one always al-ways had one's supply and one's parents' supply and one's baby |