In our family, if there metformin hcl 1000 mg side effects was a pot of baked beans in the oven, it almost always meant one thing — the Fourth of July.
The bean recipe came from my great grandmother, Jessie B. Schaeffer, a.k.a. “Mom.”
Though my cousins and I were too young to have known her, every time we ate the sweet beans, we thought of “Mom.”
She was a kind woman who liked to invite neighborhood children over for tea parties.
She was always “proper” and if the conversation turned to anything unpleasant, she would say “Let’s just not talk about it.”
Her Everett yard was an oasis of fruit trees where grandchildren loved to play.
When I think of those baked beans, I feel a tinge of guilt that I have not carried the tradition on to the fifth generation. Hopefully someone has.
The Fourth of July also brings up other images. The fireworks show over Elliott Bay, and riding home sleepy in the back of the station wagon, decorating bicycles with red, white and blue ribbons for a parade, and eating other Fourth of July fare, which always included potato salad, hot dogs and watermelon.
When thinking of the Fourth of July, many Americans probably have memories similar to mine — but we don’t always spend much time thinking about why we celebrate the Fourth of July and the history behind the holiday.
The Fourth of July refers to July 4, 1776, in which the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
The Revolutionary War itself had been waging for more than a year, since the night of Paul Revere’s ride and the battle between British regulars and colonial minutemen at Lexington.
The writer of the first draft of the Declaration was Thomas Jefferson, who worked fervently on the document in secret.
Other delegates insisted he make certain changes, which he made with great reservation.
Of course, the Constitution is the law of our land, and since the war, the Declaration has become a historical document, but it is an important one.
Many of us have not read it since our school days, but it is well worth reading, especially on its anniversary.
Perhaps the most loved and cited words of the Declaration are: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Those who signed the document took a considerable amount of risk in doing so.
It is recorded that at the signing, John Hancock urged members to stick together, “There must be no pulling different ways. We must hang together,” he said.
“Yes,” said Ben Franklin, “We must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
The first anniversary of the document was celebrated spontaneously in Philadelphia, though the war would rage for six more years.
The Fourth of July wasn’t celebrated in a widespread manner, however, until after the War of 1812, when that other American treasure, “The Star Spangled Banner” was written by Francis Scott Key.
By the late 1800’s the Fourth of July was celebrated even in western frontier towns, like Waterville.