Posts tagged with 'Galva'

Freedom Fest

  • Posted on July 3, 2009 at 12:39 am

2009 Freedom Fest Page 1
2009 Freedom Fest Page 2

With the 4th of July approaching, I’ve been reflecting on the celebrations of my youth. My small hometown puts on a “Freedom Fest” every year and it’s quite the spectacle. Here’s how the agenda for the day would usually go down.

7:00a.m- Wake up and walk across the street to the park to stuff myself full of pancakes and watch the runners come in from the annual 5k race. Is there a better way to celebrate our country’s independence than to wolf down a butt-ton of carbs while watching people have mini-strokes running in 90 degree heat?

12:00p.m.- Line up downtown and get ready to watch the big parade. Or, more accurately, get ready to pounce upon all the candy that will thrown my way and elbow any kid that tries to muscle in on my turf. Lay off, bitches, those Smarties are mine!

2:00p.m.- Go out to the park district and watch the mud volleyball/softball/tractor pull tournaments. It will also be at this time that I devour all the tasty carnie food that is being sold. Cotton candy, onion rings, elephant ears, & lemon shake-ups will be the bulk of my food pyramid.

3:00p.m.- I mentally prepare for the Lion’s Club Penny Scramble. My father is a member, so I always feel I will have the upper hand in searching through the stacks of hay for coins. Yes, I said stacks of hay. There really is no better sensation on a hot summer’s day, than having to (again) elbow a bunch of little kids as we all frantically search through hay for pennies. There is always one coveted silver dollar in the stack. Do you think I ever found it? No. Did I come out feeling morally defeated, with hay stuck to me with my own sweat? Yes.

4:00p.m.- Vomit up all the carnie food I gorged on.

5:00p.m- Go to the Methodist Church’s Ice Cream Social. Because I am now hungry from purging up all my food, I stuff myself again with cherry pie a la’ mode.

6:00p.m- Quick nap in preparation for the evening’s fireworks display.

9:00p.m.- Let the fireworks begin! Now, one might think that a small town would have a shitty fireworks display. Well, think again! The townsfolk work all year to raise the money (I’ve heard it’s hundreds of thousands of dollars) to bring a company in from Chicago to put on the show. It’s AWAZING and draws a huge crowd from all over the state. It’s actually better than most big city displays…Ha!

Sadly, I haven’t been able to make it home in the last few years to truly enjoy the opulence that is Galva’s Freedom Fest, but I am there in my heart. I wish everyone a Happy Fourth of July! Have fun and be safe wherever you celebrate!

“And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free…”

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The City Of Go

  • Posted on June 27, 2009 at 3:22 pm

I’m at my parents this weekend, bonding with the family and relaxing after a very stressful week at work. I always enjoy visting Galva because it’s teeny-tiny (pop. 2,000) and their are so many colorful characters here that we could have twenty different realty shows based on all the drama and scandel. LOVE IT!

Why, just last week alone there was a meth lab bust (AWESOME!) and one of my mother’s tenants tried to kill themselves (luckily, he just popped some pills and all was okay). And of coarse, the second any of these things occur, EVERYONE in town knows about them.

The weirdest thing to happen so far occured last night as my parents, my brother’s family, and myself were all sitting on the front porch. We could hear horns honking in the distance and I saw a red convertable go by with a person sitting on top in the backseat, but I couldn’t tell who it was. A few minutes later, we see them turn down my parents street, still honking, with a little parade of cars behind them all honking. Then, as the convertable drove by, we could see an older lady sitting on top and the driver shouted, “This is the 1947 Football Queen!” The lady waved and we all waved back.

These are the “WTF?” moments that make coming home worthwhile :)

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