4th of July/1776-1976

....Oh my...

The 7th Grade was a breath of fresh air, during our country's Bi-Centennial Year of 1976....Wow, I felt like I was signing the Declaration of Independence, myself, it was so cool, learning all the struggles and extreme sacrifices, those courageous patriots, put on the line, to get our nation rolling, on the right track...around 1776

An awesome thing we did for ART CLASS that year was hang all kinds of special patriotic flags, made of construction paper, which hung on a clothesline that hung 4 feet over our heads....Flags for each of the 13 colonies and DON'T TREAD ON ME....just kicked ass....hanging above our heads...looking cooler than anything...Betsy Ross would have been proud...

But then....One of us goofballs, got the devious idea, we could sling-shot paper clips, with rubber bands, thru all the flags, even while class was in session....It was an onslaught as these neat paper flags were decimated with little paper clip puncture holes....across the whole room...

Finally, the sh-t hit the fan, as our mean Assistant Principal, Sister Alyssa came stomping into our room, extremely pissed and was ready to drag us out of the classrooms by our ears....

Why...???....

The Bi-Centennial Flags (1776/1976) we made were pretty darn cool looking...but then they got bullet-riddled, like it was an ouzi sub-machine gun, doing the damage....so all the teacher's were all aghast because open house for the parents was up-coming that weekend...

Who were the culprits....No doubt, Fitz & Slim, Joe Devlin & Jimmy Ade, Chet & Buck & Johnny Murph, Eddie B & Moodo, for sure, maybe more....Well Sister Alyssa started to search thru the desks, across the room, looking for some evidence....

and then she tip-toed, ominously back to Mike Moody's desk, all the way back, in the last row, with a devilish grin, saying, "Can I look inside your desk, Mister Michael Moody...???...."

Moodo turned white as a ghost...because he had the motherload of paperclips and rubber bands sticking out from the inside of his desk....But right before, she was gonna stick her hands into Moodo's desk, she asked ME, Jimmy O'Leary, to look for her, because I think she knew Moodo's white as a ghost, face said it all...

I rummaged my hand thru the barrage of stuff inside of Moodo's desk and declared it clean as a whistle....and Sister Alyssa turned with a sly smirk and walked away....We all knew at that moment, Sister Alyssa was alot cooler than we thought, not taking us down, for the count....

Moodo caught a big break that day...and immediately our flag onslaught was over...

We even made more new, cooler flags, to replace the decimated ones....So everyone was happy!

After school, in the Springtime, you could find us all wander up to the park, later, lagging quarters for dough or playing fast pitch baseball, throwing a heavy rubber ball as hard as you could, at a brick wall, with a hitters' box spray-painted against the field house....

I was no good at fast-pitch....but it was a nice chance to try to heave a ball at Nolan Ryan fast-ball speed...and watch it fly, mostly beaning someone in the head, arm or shoulders...which always brought out lotsa laughter....The older kids like Eddy Epper & Jack McManus & Hop & Case & Coon-Daddy & Bram & The Funk & Gert & Jimmy Walsh, all a year older than us, made us look like complete fools...

Then, us slugs, gave up, and rambled down to the air-conditioned basement of our field house where the cool temps were heavenly and played a card game called KNUCKLES....Knuckles was a blood-sport, with a deck of cards...

All I remember, if you lost at Knuckles, your opponent got to try to make your knuckles, spew out blood, by scathing the deck of cards like a machete, going thru a big melon...

It was ferociously cruel but we loved it, because it was high-comedy and high-brutality all rolled into one...I can remember Neil Krull scraping down Eddie Barkowski's knuckles almost to the bone...in a relentless war of a Knuckles game, that carried high stakes....

When July 4th, 1976....finally did come around...the day was a big-let-down, for me...I was expecting a huge celebration, beyond anything that had been ever seen....but I just remember rolling out of bed, up at the Lake House...My Dad was patiently reading the Tribune on the patio ande my Mom had all kinds of red-white-and-blue stuff up...

I was expecting all-day...all-night fireworks & sparklers & smoke bombs & bottle rockets...

But here I was, sleepy, walking out on our patio about 10AM. Dead Quiet...I looked at my Dad...and I think he was zeroed in on the sports section of the Chicago Tribune, if White Sox pitcher, Britt Burns or Wilbur Wood had pitched a gem...just turning the page after page, of the newspaper, letting out a sigh.

I think that was my first recollection, that the media knew how to get out the HYPE for an event and push it to the MAX beyond my capacity to understand such things...The Bi-Centennial, came and went and a little of that patriotism I had, maybe shoulda' died with it....because I had spent hours and hours, combing over our US History, from 200 years before, and was very proud to be an American, that day...no matter what...big fireworks or no fireworks....

The 4th of July, 2009...is only a few days away....and I hope people do realize this nation was founded on some sound principles that stand even to this day...And those principles are...Every man is created equal and we all share in the endeavors to make this nation, a better place, every which way we can...In my mind...

....and "T.J."...Thomas Jefferson also would want to say....wave your flags high with pride, so everyone can see them, flowing and glowing, standing for our Independence, back on July 4th, 1776.....233 long years ago....and certainly right now...!!!...in the "Land of the FREE" and "Home of the BRAVE"...