Monday, July 4th,1977-in which we receive an unexpected windfall, dine on fried chicken, and watch fireworks from the comfort of our front lawn

The 201st Birthday of our country-now we start on the next hundred.  Seems hard to think of history as things I've seen, but I remember Pearl Harbor and Madame Chiang Kai Shek...the second World War, Korea, and Viet Nam...President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King being assassinated.    The first jet planes and the 747-even the first beginning of television...
Today was very pleasant.  For a start, it was cool with a little breeze blowing.

Pete and I took a cab to Holy Rosary for his blood test.  Then we rode with Paul (a favorite driver and good friend-PL) on a call to the Palamino (a restaurant and lounge in downtown Ontario-PL).  He picked up a man who'd been drinking heavily and I was little worried about Pete but he seemed very taken with Pete-gave him a quarter to put in his bank.

Paul persuaded him to eat so he went to Kentucky Fried Chicken and picked up a basket of chicken for Pete and me, too.  He dropped the drunk, whose name was "John", at his place and came back with $5.00 he said John had told him to give to me (?)

 We went back to his (Paul's) place and ate.  I had a beer and Pete some diet root-beer.  Paul packed up the leftovers, bananas, milk, strawberries, and some chicken, and brought us home on his way to pick up John again.  Pete and I came home and napped.  Then Betty (Phipps) came by with two packs of sparklers and some outgrown shorts of the the boys that she thought might fit Petey.  We gave her our laundry.

Then we watched the CBS "Happiest Birthday" special-a reprise of last year's bi-centennial events.  We watched the tall ships in New York's Harbor and the re-staging of the Battle of Gettysburg.  Then there was a music special, "From Yankee Doodle to Ragtime".  We had hot dogs on buns and watermelon and saw the spectacular Payette fire on the 10:00 pm news (Betty <Nelson> said their power was off for a while because of the fire).

Then we heard the crump of fireworks and went out to see if we could see them from here.  Just as we went out, the Plazas arrived to watch from our lawn.  Pete was pleased to see Vickie , and watched the fireworks sitting on Mrs. Plaza's (Kay-PL) lap, wrapped in our old afghan.  Mr Plaza (Joe-truly one of the Greats!-PL) lit Petey's sparklers for him (fortunately, because I don't think I could have got them started)  and Pete shared with Vickie.  Daniel and Maria came home and watched on the lawn, too.  Daniel said Mary Jo had gotten a sparkler spark in her eye one year (I'd put away Pete's second box by then-only let him have one box, but his eyes lit up like stars when he held his first sparklers).  We had a good view only partially obscured by the house on the corner and the tall tree.  We had cold chicken and strawberries (Pete took the tops off) when we came in.  Pete wanted a "picnic" but it was too cold.  We taped his toes and he went to sleep to dream of fireworks and his organ he's getting tomorrow.