The Fourth of July Jefferson- Style

Josh and me at the fireworks


from left to right: Gatsby, Josh, me, my brother, Ross (http://www.rossfrazier.com/)
and finally, Ross's dog, Merlot

just a random house we passed walking to town- all decked out for the fourth!

in the park

my best buddy, Gatsby



Jefferson General Store soda fountain

Baskets of candy at Jefferson General Store- makes me want to paint a picture of an old-fashioned candy store!

Jefferson General Store- how great is this place?

The Old Fudge Shop


Since I've been taking this week off "work" to recover, clean and reorganize following the mad rush to get ready for the peach festival, I have very little art news to post so I'm filling the in-between with personal posts. We (my husband Josh, our dog Gatsby and I- see pictures above) spent the afternoon and evening in the little town where my parents live enjoying a fourth that was just the way the Fourth of July is supposed to be. Jefferson is a "little Louisiana town in Texas" that has around 2200 residents. Somehow, however, that number swells by oftentimes thousands come holidays. We were there for Mardi Gras and were shocked at the turn out and the abundance of activities. The Independence Day celebration, likewise, left nothing to be desired. We had amazing barbecue right off the bat at Riverport Barbecue downtown followed by fudge from The Old Fudge Shop (an adorable old-fashioned store with candy, candy, and more candy, toys, antiques, spices and the like, curiosities and lots of sodas in glass bottles). They have excellent fudge in lots of flavors (my all-time favorite is apricot walnut) plus these absolutely fabulous New Orleans style pralines! There was a homemade ice-cream contest and music in the park where the big white gazebo was surrounded by white lawn chairs and flags. People of all shapes and sizes and ages milled around in patriotic attire with paper fans and bowls of ice cream or hot dogs in wax paper sleeves. There were white tents and kids in red wagons, face painting and a bake sale to benefit the library. It seemed to me to be the quintessential small town fourth of July celebration. We ate ice-cream, we sat and listened to The Sweet Adelines sing good old-school patriotic songs in good old-school barber shop fashion, we grilled hot dogs and ate them outside, then we ended the night at the river watching a spectacular fireworks show on it's banks. It was one of those days that at the end of it, as I sat on a big quilt in the bed of a pick-up truck with a margarita in a styrofoam cup and watched the fireworks race into the sky and burst one on top of the other in a bubbling, brilliant finale, I thought to myself that no matter what happened tomorrow or the next day or the day after that, I would always remember that today was a very good day.
Here's hoping that your fourth, too, was a very good day.

sweetly, happily and artfully yours,

randi