When we’re teenagers and young adults, it seems that many times we tend to focus on our how our world views vary from the those of our parents. It is, I suppose, a very natural part of establishing our independence.
On the flipside, however, it is always fascinating how certain traditions carry on from generation to generation – and become all the more important as we grow older.
Yesterday was the Fourth of July. Although family circumstances prevented our children and grandchildren from joining my wife and I in northern Michigan this year, I couldn’t help but reflect on those special traditions of ours. When I was a child, we always did the usual Fourth of July cookouts. And fireworks were always on the menu – even though they were technically illegal in Ohio at that time.
Not long after my wife and I married, my father decided to have his three boys and their families spend time in the northern Michigan lake country. Thus started a special tradition for my family. Year in and year out, we would ask our kids where they wanted to go for vacation. Their answers were never Disney World or some previously unvisited attraction. They wanted to go to northern Michigan.
Often those trips surrounded the Fourth of July. That tradition inevitably included swimming, boating, sightseeing and other seasonal activities. And, of course, ice cream. On the Fourth of July, it was hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, corn on the cob and cherry pie. And the July Fourth feast had to be topped off with a rousing display of fireworks. We could sit lakeside for hours and watch the dueling fireworks among the neighbors.
In time, we became empty nesters and, ultimately, grandparents. We had raised our kids to be independent and, sadly, that meant they moved hundreds of miles away from South Bend. But while getting to northern Michigan now is a long-distance chore, their love of our traditions continues, and they make the journey as often as their busy lives allow.
Again, neither of our two kids were able to join us for this year’s Fourth of July festivities, I know they were with us in spirit. And I know our special family traditions will carry on.
