Beautiful Weekend.

Jennifer and my Dad must have put in a good word with the lord, because we sure have had a beautiful 4th of July weekend. One of the nicest 4th of July’s weekends weather wise that we have had in quite sometime.

Jennifer loved the 4th of July. Not because of the fireworks and parades but more because of the gathering of family, food and memories of past 4th of July’s. Dad also enjoyed the 4th for many of the same reasons. During his working days it was not his favorite because he had to patrol and deal with issues in the Forest Service campgrounds. Usually with people that had over celebrated.

My 4th of July started off with a surprise that got me all teared up. Our nephew Michael Benner has been busy putting out music that he writes and performs. It is one of his hobbies. He calls his Group “Shamus and the Bottom Feeder Band” (However I believe it is all just Mike). You can look Shamus and the Bottom Feeders up on YouTube and see and listen to some of the music.

He has a wide variety of topics that his music is about. Some are humorous takes on Butte and events around Butte (e.g, St Patrick’s Day) and some are more serious and truly music that I feel he should pursue getting developed/produced. If I had to categorize his music it is some Jimmy Buffet /some country inspired mix.

Well yesterday he surprised me with a new song that was inspired by some of his memories that included Jennifer. This new song is titled “The Music Made It Better”. I don’t know if he has released it on YouTube just yet. I believe I got the pleasure of hearing it before the masses. A perk of being a family member of a musician.

To provide some background. Mike is one of our nephews that is not all that much younger than Jennifer and I. I think Mike is like 6 years younger than us. So he was in Junior High when Jennifer and I were Seniors in High School. The point of the song is how music can trigger memories of points in times in our lives. The song starts with Mike’s memory of Jennifer (Aunt Min) and him riding in her car with Meatloaf’s “Bat out of Hell” album blaring away and how she made him promise not to tell his Mom what they were listening to because she would probably not approve her son being exposed to that debauchery of music. It then goes on to describe other melody’s that trigger memory’s that reminds him of other family members like his Mom and Dad and his the music always make the memories better.

Like I said it got me all teared up but in a good kind of way. It made me so happy that other have great memories of her, especially on the 4th of July. She really had lots of good memories of past 4th of July’s and always looked forward to creating new ones on the current 4th of July.

In Butte the 4th of July festivities always kicks off with the City Fireworks show on the 3rd of July. Town Pump (gas station company in Montana) has sponsored the event for many many years. They always put on a hell of a show and this year was no exception. Then on the morning of the 4th you have the parade and then the rest of the day is spent going to family/friend gatherings and eating and sometimes drinking too much and then when it finally get dark enough you do your own fireworks display.

Our families had their traditional schedules. When we were young, Jennifer’s family usually gathered at her Aunt Helen’s and my family usually went to my Aunt and Uncles cabin (which is in the Forrest up behind my Mom and Dads house) and then back here to the ranch for the fireworks.

After we got older that changed up some. Then when we got married that also changed some more. However the overall theme stayed the same. You ate way too much good food (not necessarily food good for you) and occasionally drank too many beverages. When you were a kid they were sugar loaded beverages and as a adult alcohol loaded beverages. However it usually was a good time (provided you did not overindulge).

Some of the foods were traditional type foods that only showed up during this holiday period (l8ke watermelon, corn on the cob, certain cookies/pastries, etc). One of Jennifer’s traditions was to make sure we had red licorice to snack on during the parade. A tradition that we have kept alive since her passing. We were all snacking on it yesterday.

After the parade we went to my sister-in-law Pats house and we had a lovely lunch and visited with some of Jennifer’s family and Pat’s family. We got to see my niece Hannah and husband Cody and their daughter Alice and newest son Jack. It was our first time to see Jack. He is a cute little guy.

The we went out to Elk Park to the annual Milodragovich family gathering and BBQ. Again a long standing tradition that started with my grandparents. The Sologubs/Milodargovichs go back a long ways. They don’t BBQ hamburgers and hot dogs. They BBQ a full pig and other meats (beef, lamb, turkey). They do it the “old country” way. On a spit that is hand turned. It is a all day process and very labor intensive. This year was pig and beef and it was delicious.

I got to have a nice visit with Lynn and Duke Cromrich as we ate.

The Milodragovich’s lost their Aunt Marie a few days after Dad. She reached her 100 birthday just a few days before and they had a nice family party for her and then just a few days later she went. Her and Dad were some of the last of their generation at the party so another changing of the guard is occurring. A lot of thee knowledge of the Elk Park area went with these two departing.

Then we came home and Case went fishing for a bit. It was comical that the elk came down and we’re keeping him company. Then the boys lit fireworks. So all in all a beautiful weekend to celebrate 250 years of our beautiful country.