The grandsons slept over on Friday night so we could watch the fireworks across the street, and then spent Saturday with friends next door.
Fortunately, the humidity that’s been plaguing us disappeared, so it was a good time for us and our friends to visit the County Fair on Saturday morning.
The boys got to go on rides, play the carnival games (they won inflatable bats and a “hammer”, which they allowed me to keep as an office joke) and pick out souvenirs.
We got home before the mid-day heat and crowds and after lunch, the boys got to swim in a neighbor’s pool. Then back to the fair for the younger one and a video game session for the older.
Meanwhile, I did laundry and errands, and made supper and fried dough. After driving the boys home, I got to listen to “Starship” perform while I finished cleaning up the house.
It was a perfect summer day, and the boys – and I – deserved every minute of it.
Thinking on their happy, rosy-cheeked little faces, I mulled over the notion that “It Takes a Village”. Republicans, with their wealth and undocumented worker nannies, maids and gardeners have no concept of how important extended family and friends are to the middle class.
The kindness and support of all their friends enriches my grandchildren far beyond what the resources a single family can provide.
I concluded that the power elite’s hostility to this notion is the core of their strategy to keep the middle class on an endless treadmill that drives profit-making for the very few through the consumption of the many.
What a pity that there are people who actually believe this is a good thing.