Happy 5th of July!!

In our little corner of the vineyard, on the mountain here in Heber/Overgaard, Arizona, the 4th of July is being celebrated in a big way today. The festivities began at this morning 6 a.m. when our infamous 'bomber'... who shall remain nameless.... even tho everyone up here knows who it is... oh what the heck! It's Les Parham! He's one of our favorite people and has been doing this 'treat' for the community for years! I think, if I'm remembering right, it's well over 25 years. His wife, Leah, told me that the fun actually started under HER window at 5 a.m., but we heard one of the huge booms at 6:00. Apparently there were many 'greetings' from Les this morning, but we only heard the one. He has to be careful where he does this, as it has raises the hackles on some of the newcomers to the area, (the Country Club area). They don't seem to appreciate the tradition. A few years ago, some of those not-so-fun people threw a tantrum and got the Sheriff's Department to forbid him from doing it... They said it scared their little children... bah humbug!! Anyway, since then, he goes to the county each and every year for a permit, a letter of permission of sorts, to do this.

Ok, I just got off the phone from one of his daughters, Elizabeth Baumann, for some of the history of this fun tradition. She says it all started in about 1974 when Les and a couple of his good buddies, Cliff Johnson and Dewey Franco, got together and had this wild idea to start something new in Heber... something like Paul Revere's Midnight Ride, something that would become famous... or infamous... in the community. They came up with this... They'd ride around town setting off some kind of cannon/pipe bomb... she said she doesn't really know anything about the contraption as the girls aren't allowed in on this. But it's great fun and not a true 4th of July celebration, Heber style anyway, without our special wake-up call. I'd like to think of him as our local Superman...

We are all (well most of us!) glad some little boys never quite grow up!

Thanks for the tradion, Les!

There was a flag raising and pancake breakfast at the high school at 7 a.m. That's always a good thing... we've got some great cooks here.

Then there was a parade down Main Street (Hwy. 260) at 11 a.m. I've never seen so many people at one of these things. I took this picture with my phone... (I NEVER remember my camera!) It's not very clear, but hopefully you can see the numbers of people. There were people packed in on both sides of the road for at least 2 miles! It was fun, about the most you get up here! It's a great way to bring out all the locals and it brings lots of people from all over the State.

After the parade is over, there's big doings at the park... rides, booths, food, music, games, lots of people and fun. If I get over there, I'll take some pictures and post them.

Tonight, at the high school football field, there will be presented one of the best fireworks displays around. It really is excellent. It's funny, though. So many of the displays go off with quite a concussion 'boom' that jars the surrounding mountain sides (the field is in a depression, a valley type area, between cliffs) so hard that they set off many car alarms each time. Always makes me giggle.

Next, you can see Steve is testing out his green thumb.

He's planting tons of flowers in our yard and always makes it look so nice.

Well, that's about it for now... like I said, if I get more pictures, I'll post them.
Hope ya'll are having a safe, fun, and patriotically great holiday weekend!

God Bless the USA