Musings from Left Field

Where did you grow up? Or as they say in the South, where you from?

If you grew up in a big­ger city like I did, you may be long­ing for a part of Amer­ica you know is there, but is easy to over­look. I see exits on the inter­state for towns with three stop lights. But then a sign for an out­let mall in 25 miles dis­tracts me, and I for­get these places exist.

My hus­band, on the other hand, grew up in a town with less than 2900 peo­ple. His high school grad­u­at­ing class was only 50 peo­ple. Most of them went to preschool together. He LOVES towns where you can get to know every­body in an after­noon and where every­body knows where any­body is at a given moment.

When I heard about Ker­rville’s Fourth of July Cel­e­bra­tion on the River, I admit, I had to ask Howie(my afore­men­tioned hus­band) what the draw was for a city girl to this type of event. Here’s what he had to say:

These types of events are pure. they’re small town Amer­ica. it’s where the town comes together as more than a com­mu­nity; it becomes a fam­ily. it’s where peo­ple wait all year for Mrs Keefers’ baked goods and to see (and buy) wooden San­tas care­fully carved by Mr. Fraser all winter.

Howie went on to say that when kids home from col­lege stop by and say hello and fam­i­lies bring out their new babies, the area not only cel­e­brates a hol­i­day, they cel­e­brate the unique cul­ture that is found only in that region.

Ker­rville is serv­ing up a slice of this kind of pure Amer­i­cana to any­one who wants to join in. The fam­ily friendly cel­e­bra­tion is hosted at Louise Hays Park and starts as early as 11am. A wel­come cer­e­mony offi­cially kicks off the event at 11:30am, and regional bands(including Coun­try, Rhythm & Blues, Texas Style, and 50’s favorites)  start kick­ing up the fun at noon and don’t stop until their fin­gers bleed (or roughly 9pm).

Stuff me with but­ter pecan ice cream and fried sug­ary delights and a smidge of Shiner and even this city girl starts feel­ing like a true Texan in this type of envi­ron­ment. Oh, and let’s not for­get that famous Texas Hill Coun­try BBQ… YUMMO!

The evening caps off at 9:30pm with a ginor­mous fire­works dis­play over the river that makes the fourth of July THE FOURTH OF JULY. You can’t cel­e­brate with­out fire­works, and while many coun­ties have banned the per­sonal use of fire­works you have no excuse not to see the gar­gan­tuan explo­sives in sky that make us all proud to be an Amer­i­can (and get an excuse to sing the song in a large group once a year with­out shame over our musi­cal abilities).

So for cry­ing out loud, get out of your house and cel­e­brate this Fourth of July. The daily sac­ri­fices of this nation’s mil­i­tary (and spouses) are not made so you can sit at home and save gas. Find your way to the Texas Hill Coun­try and party (in what­ever way fits you) and live it up– make it an Inde­pen­dence Day to remember!

Update:

If you want to have even more fun, check out the other activ­i­ties on the list. Other San Anto­nio blog­gers have pro­vided their take on some of the best activ­i­ties in the area.

Take a look:
5. San Anto­nio Mis­sions Base­ball Game Fourth of July Extrav­a­ganza, by Der­rich Rodriguez

4. Fourth of July Cel­e­bra­tion in Luck­en­bach, TX, by Luis San­doval Jr.

3. Tub­ing on the Comal River (New Braun­fels, TX), by Jen­nifer Navarrete

2. Cel­e­bra­tion on the River (Ker­rville, Texas), by Shel­ley Cook (You made it to me, what about the others?)

1. Aqua Boom Fes­ti­val on Lake LBJ, by Jes­sica Young

This blog post is part of the JW San Anto­nio Hill Coun­try Resort & Spa “List of the Best Things to do in the Texas Hill Coun­try” Blog Scav­enger Hunt. The goal is to com­pile a list of the best ways to spend this Fourth of July (and any day of the year!) in the Hill Coun­try. Blog­gers from San Anto­nio, Texas and any­where around the globe are invited to par­tic­i­pate and share they favorite thing to do in the Hill Coun­try. To par­tic­i­pate and have a link to your blog fea­tured in the JW San Anto­nio “List of the Best Things to do in the Texas Hill Coun­try” blog post all you have to do is write a blog (length, style and every­thing else is up to you), include this para­graph at the end of your post and send us a link to it via Twit­ter at @JWSanAntonio. Visit our blog for more infor­ma­tion about the Blog Scav­enger Hunt. We can’t wait to read your post! Thank you for help­ing us dis­cover the Hill Coun­try – the home of the newest and largest JW Mar­riott Resort, open­ing Jan­u­ary 2010.