Through the past brightly

Through conversations with my two oldest I have been down memory lane on the topic of memorable July 4th's. They want to know which ones were the best as all kids like you to quantify things. I tell them that they are all good because they are different and they mirror what your life is about at that time. I pat myself on the back for coming up with this realization but hell, they just want to hear the crazy and different stuff. This a part of what I shared with them. The names have not been changed so ha!!

Growing up in Santa Barbara, it was a tradition that we would go to some beach and surf on the 4th. I carried this tradition on to my circle of friends and once we were no longer dependant on others for rides, we forayed out. Here are my three fav surfing 4th's.

#1 For pure laughs I have to tell you the tale of the nude beach 4th. We, a group of friends, met at my parents house at about 7:30 and we were trying to figure what beach to go for the 4th. There was no swell running but traditions must be observed y'know. it looked like we would splinter off into various directions when Gordon (real name there :)) said,"Why don't we go to Summerland Nude Beach?" At last a voice of reason was among us. We loaded up our gear and departed.

Eventually the six of us at Summerland grew to about 20 as word got around. I still remember my mom saying to me as I was making a lunch and grabbing some drinks,"So are you going to surf naked there? Won't that hurt?" I did surf naked and it wasn't that bad btw. This beach wasn't a surf beach but we transformed that day. I never laughed so hard when Gordon's older brother walked down the beach naked, with his surfboard under his arm and a paperbag over his head with two eyeholes cut out for navigation. He said he was shy...

For pure great surf it would have been a trip into Hollister Ranch that Tutto bro'd us out with. The waves were 6 to 8 feet at Augie Bowl and there were 3 of us out for 6 hours. I was sore and sunburned and missed the fireworks in SB that year but damn that was fun.

Another tradition once the sun went to bed in Santa Barbara was the fireworks at Ledbetter beach. They'd have a big display at La Playa Stadium and shoot some additional fireworks of a ship that was anchored off shore. People would get there early on the morning of the 4th and dig big pits in the sand and set up camp there all day until the sun went down. It was really fun with a great mix of people. Families, groups of friends, surfers, bikers, vato dudes all out enjoying the fourth and being cool with one another. Ahhh, the importance of getting along.

Eventually they had to shut it down. It got too popular. The morning of the 5th the beach resembled some lunar landscape and people stopped being cool with each other. Fights and other such bullshit. So it goes.

I hope you have had a wonderful holiday weekend. I did. It still goes on at 6:04 am. My 5 year old is riding a bike in the kitchen area in tidy whities and t shirt. Yeah, they are all good:)