Fourth of July Picnic.

Fourth of July has always been a special day in our family and since this Thursday is that day, it's a good time to tell you about how we celebrated one year when I was a kid. We didn't have a fancy outdoor cooker or grill. We didn't have a car to take us to the lake. We didn't have bathing suits, but we had fun. On that morning we were all eager to go on a picnic to the lake. We had dug worms and had plenty of the wiggly, slimey little worms in a can ready to put on the hook. Mama packed some grease in the big iron pot that she usually cooked our meals in. The grease was from rendering the fat from the pig that was killed in the winter. It was called lard. She packed some potatoes to fry in the grease, just in case we didn't catch some fish. She also had a chicken prepared and ready to fry. and for a special treat she had baked a cake. Since we needed to ride to the lake, Daddy harnessed up the mules and hooked them to the farm wagon and we were on our way. We rode the five miles to Chalk Lake sitting on boards laid across the sides of the wagon. Our family filled the wagon up. We were a big family. This will be a great day for all of uss. When we got to the lake we all got a fishing pole and started to fish. My daddy found a good place to fish. He found an old log that had fallen into the water. He found a place that he could ease out and catch fish in deeper water. We were only allowed to fish in the shallow water. None of us smaller kids could swim, so we had to be careful where we fished. It seemed that Daddy had a magic touch. He caught enough fish to fry for our picnic. He scaled and gutted the fish and prepared them for the big iron pot. They made a fire and cooked the fish, fried the chicken and potatoes. We had a feast and it was wonderful. After we had eaten we were allowed to wade in the water. It was very shallow near the banks. We were having so much fun that Mama decided to join us. We were all playing in the water in our clothes, and we were all soaking wet. We delighted in making Mama as wet as we were. She had a lot of fun, too. Everybody went home wet and happy.