This morning I looked up the 4th of July blog postings I've written about over the decades. I've seen fantastic, over the top, Disney extravaganzas.
And here where I live in Central Florida, I've seen our Red, Hot and Boom display that draws around 200,000 people. But we can see it from where I live. Some years I've watched it from the lake, some years while swimming in the pool.
And I love the Boston Pops and all that patriotic music.
But, below is my very favorite 4th of July event ever.
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On July 4th, 1976 my husband, Ken, was invited to take part in the swearing in ceremony for brand new Americans.
This was in Fort Lauderdale in the middle of summer. The auditorium had no air conditioning. I envisioned a dozen immigrants standing in front of the judge, answering his questions and Ken offering a blessing.
Boom, we're done! Now everybody to the beach.
But, no, it wasn't like that. The auditorium was jammed with people, mostly Cubans. Many of them had experienced tremendous peril coming to the U.S. Almost every person carried an American flag.
We sang patriotic songs and when the time came for swearing in, hundreds of people came forward.
The judge gave a speech about how fortunate all of us in the room were to be living in the United States of America.
After the swearing in there was wild waving of flags, hugging, crying, laughing and singing.
Along with the other nationalities, hundreds of men and woman arrived as Cubans and left as Cuban Americans.
I was moved beyond measure.
***
