Saturday, July 04, 2009

A village Fourth


Murrells Inlet has a nice low-key Fourth of July celebration and the centerpiece each year is the boat parade. Locals decorate their boats with red, white, blue, and often gold drapery and flags, and make a traditional circuit through the marsh.

The time varies from year to year, based on the hour high tide occurs -- this photo was taken at about 6 PM -- and the boats are spaced so far apart that you can't get many in one shot. Actually, if you look beyond the boat in the foreground, you'll see (dimly, I'm afraid, because zooming with my camera fuzzes out the quality) other boats ambling around in the harbor awaiting their turns.

They never come down as far as our neighborhood -- the water isn't deep enough -- but we watch from my parents' porch, in between conversing, laying down placemats, eating fried chicken and just lazing around with (in my case) a Pepsi on the rocks, and a book.

And after dark, fireworks will issue from the same place up the inlet, where a cookout and celebration are going on at the harbor park. We might go out to the front porch and watch them pop above the trees.

Hope everyone else is having as enjoyable a weekend!


5 comments:

Sherwood Harrington said...

This is wonderful, Ruth, and thank you! Both photos are treats, too.

Christy Duffy said...

Pepsi?! Ruth. I am so disappointed!

Catherine said...

Heaven!! But I'm with Christy -- Pepsi????

Nostalgic for the Pleistocene said...

I tried to quit! I even said goodbye to it with the help of my spiritual adviser and then went to church. But i only had it 3 times. Well, 5. And i swear, i did not spend any public money on it.

Larry find Pepsi easier on his stomach than Coke products, so that's what we keep at home, but i have a fountain diet Coke when we hit the convenience store.

southernyankee said...

I wasn't there when it was poured. Therefore, I cannot verify the truth of this statement. Wink, wink.