The Adventures of Nellie and Doris: The One on the Fourth of July

 

 

It was such a great day, playing at the lake, eating great food, and mostly, hanging with friends. July 4, 1980 (or so...what's a year or two anyway?).

Scott, Baby Boo, me

Nellie and I thought it would be fun to head up to Salmon Creek for the day, and then watch fireworks at Fort Vancouver that night. So we went all out.  Mary--Nellie's sister--and Doug and family all came. Nellie and Bobby and family all came. And my friend Scott, my sons and April--our little Baby Boo--came.  Scott and I often took Baby Boo (our neighbor's grandgirl) with us to fun places.

Mary and Nellie and hubs

Nellie made the macaroni salad and fried the chicken--this I can swear to because she always did that.  We probably had beans and taco salad and chips. Lots of chips. And a bunch of dessert stuff. Food was one of our great pleasures. Laughing and eating and enjoying ourselves.

 

We spent the day swimming and playing. The kids ran around like crazy, and Baby Boo was the darling of the group. Everyone, even the kids, rolled around with her. 

As the day wore on,  we decided it was time to head down to Vancouver so we could get good seats at the fort. I love fireworks and am the oooher and ahhher in the crowd. We were looking forward to the wonderful show and Scott and I were looking forward to seeing Boo's reaction to the fireworks. Everyone was excited.

We arrived at the fort and found parking. Everyone jumped out of their truck or car and my kids from Scott's van. It was specially made with a ramp so Scott's could escape in his wheelchair. I started to lower the ramp for Scott to exit and the ramp stopped. Just stopped. It wouldn't lower. It just sat there open but up in the air. Bobby and Doug looked over the ramp and couldn't figure out how to lower the ramp. He was stuck! 

The kids were disappointed that we had to leave; so, we decided they chould stay with Nellie and Mary, including Baby Boo, so they could watch the show.  Scott and I decided we would drive over to Bill and Candy's place (owners of our store) and have Bill fix the ramp. Like my dad, Bill could fix anything.

Well, anything except the ramp, that is. No go. Nada. Too bad; so sad. What the heck...we might as well stay on the street and watch the neighborhood firework show that Bill and the neighbors were presenting. Scott stayed on the open ramp and I stood around the van. After a bit we decided to head downtown where Scott lived in hope of figuring out how we could get him out of his van.

The Fort Vancouver fireworks were over around 9:00 and my kids and April Boo and all the Nellie family, headed home.  Boo was returned to her grandmother and my sons were put to bed.

And what were Scott and I doing all this while? Why, we were entertaining the local firefighters. That's who we had to call in order to rescue Scott. After some thinking and trying, he was finally put on the ground. We waved and thanked the firefighters and headed to his apartment. He went to bed and I headed home to my family.

As the years go by, the adventures of Nellie and I were able to continue. The two of us continued to do crazy fun silly things. Sometimes Nellie would end up with all the kids with me following her lead in the world. Sometimes I ended up with the kids and Nellie followed my lead into the world. But always together. We always had the best of times. Always.

And so it goes
peace~~~