I Am A Citizen - A Day of Americana

We love to travel and experience other places and cultures but in our core we love living in the United States of America.  Today was spent indulging in activities that reminded us that we are citizens of this wonderful country.

We started the day by participating in the Los Angeles Gun Buyback program.  Every year on the Saturday before Mother's Day the LA Police Department provides an event that allows people to turn in shotguns, handguns and rifles in exchange for up to a $100 gift certificate with "no questions asked".  It is an attempt to get guns off the streets and the timing is appropriate because so many mothers lose their children to gun violence.  My husband has been the owner of a Remington Rifle, 22 caliber.  It was a gun he purchased with money he earned as a teenager, working on his sister's farm in northern Illinois.  He used to accompany his dad and uncles when they went hunting and wanted to have his own rifle.  This gun has been hidden in the back of our closet for as long as I have lived here and I have been hoping that since he never used it, someday we would find someway to dispose of it. The thought of someone breaking into our home, stealing this outdated weapon and using it in a crime was abhorrent to me.

Jay grew up on a farm in Illinois and hunting and rifles were part of his culture.  Not so for me.  I never saw or touched a real gun until I met Jay. I disliked guns and they frighten me.  As a young mother I did not want my sons to have cowboy guns and holsters when they were children. Yet they would go outside to play and pick up sticks to use as pretend guns and their father would tell me I was fighting a losing cause...boys will be boys.  So today, after reading the announcement in the local paper, Jay suggested that we turn in the rifle.  We drove to Wilmington with the rifle wrapped in an old afghan and turned it in to the police.

They were appreciative, gave us a gift certificate and we left feeling like we had done our part to keep our neighborhoods safer.

Our next stop was to the El Segundo Hometown Fair.  Los Angeles is a sprawling metropolis, where one city runs into the next with little to differentiate one town from the next...except for the town of El Segundo.  Set apart from the rest of the megalopolis by the Los Angeles International airport on one end, the oil refineries on the other end and the ocean on the west, it sits as a little Mayberry in the South Bay.  Every year they have their Hometown Fair, held in the local park,  where local people set up booths of handcrafted items for sale.

 My friend, Gloria, was selling her "Uniquely Yours" jewlery in one booth

and another friend, Carol, was selling El Segundo T-shirts at a card table. 

The high school clubs had various food booths to raise some needed funds and Jay supported them by buying a Frito Boat.

The central feature of the park is an old fashioned bandstand.  The high school orchestra played big band tunes and then, as a fitting tribute to all that has been occurring in our world lately, played a tribute to our armed forces with a medley of theme songs of the various branches of the services. 

Stars and Stripes Forever brought tears to everyone's eyes.  We walked the park, greeted people, listened to the music and felt our hearts lifted as we realized how fortunate we are to live where we do.  We may criticize our politicians, we may wish that our economy was stronger, we may question the direction of our government strategies, but bottom line, we live in a wonderful country where we have freedoms and choices.  Days like today bring that message home to us.