This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, July 3, 2011 - Hot dogs getting black and charred on the grill. Kids writing their names with sparklers in the night air. For many Americans, July 4th is a day of celebration and patriotism as families and friends gather to barbecue, swim and watch fireworks.
As the columnist Erma Bombeck once observed: "You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism."
Still for some St. Louisans, this 4th of July goes beyond potato salad and sunburns. For some it's a chance to reflect on Independence Days come and gone; for others, a day to imagine Independence Days to come.
'Our House Had a Lot of Fireworks'
Soon after the 4th, Angela Reemes will celebrate her 98th birthday, just a couple years shy of a century.
Born July 18, 1913 in south St. Louis, Reemes remembers a time when fire engines were pulled by horses, when people waited in line "two blocks long for a bag of flour," and when talking to a loved one serving overseas meant waiting for their letters, sometimes for months at a time. Reemes has witnessed some of America's most trying times but also some of its most jubilant.
"I went through the Depression, and it was really bad," she said. "I got out of high school in 1928. After I graduated I went out to get a job. I stood in lines that were blocks long and couldn't find anything."
Soon after her high school graduation, and after her father lost his job, Reemes and her family moved to a farm outside De Soto. She became a teacher at a one-room schoolhouse in Sikeston, Mo., where she was paid $50 a month, $10 of which went to the boy who brought the wood to heat the school.
Reemes recalled a time where there were no fireworks on the 4th of July -- at least not the kind today. If you wanted fireworks, she said, you would have to make them, which her brothers would.
"I had four brothers. Our house had a lot of fireworks," she said, grinning.
She is a mother to three, a grandmother to 15 and a great-grandmother to 19. She called her family a "tremendous gathering of love" and is quick to point out her luck.
But it's not just her family that makes her count her blessings. Moments and memories throughout Reemes' life have put things in perspective for her, and that is something she thinks today's world has forgotten -- moments like people coming to the family farm every day begging to work for food decades ago all the way up to this week when her niece had to evacuate her home in Los Alamos, New Mexico, because of the wildfires.
"I've had a very good life," she said. "I'm lucky."
Reemes now lives in an apartment at the Cape Albeon Retirement Community in Valley Park. She is still active, doesn't use a cane or walker and enjoys swimming at the pool. She also prides herself on never missing an election, national, state or local, since she was able to vote and considers herself to be an exceptionally patriotic person, especially with almost 100 4th of Julys to her credit.
"I've always been a politically minded person," she said. "My father would turn over (in his grave) if he knew I didn't vote. I believe in voting."
Reemes also remembers listening to a crystal radio to hear the news. She clearly remembers listening to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's speeches during World War II.
"I remember listening to the end of the war on the radio, how happy we all were," she remembered. "That was quite a day. The church bells were ringing. Everything was ringing."
Reemes is proud of her family's record of service. She has an ancestor who served in the Revolutionary War, a grandfather who fought in the Civil War, a husband who earned a purple heart serving in the Navy during WW II, a son who served in Vietnam and a grandson currently in the Air Force.
"I know all about war," Reemes added. "But I'm still patriotic."
'Sometimes It's a Painful Day'
For some, July 4th can come as a painful experience, says Tom Burnham, director of a homeless shelter in the basement of St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church near the Soulard Market.
"We typically don't make a big deal of the 4th in the shelter," Burnham said. "There are inevitably a handful of guys for whom the 4th of July is a very special day. Sometimes it's a painful day. One way or another, it has great meaning for them."
According to Burnham, about 20 percent of the homeless are veterans, a percentage of veterans that is higher than the general population
"That holds true all across the country," he added.
The Veterans Adminstration can help, says Burnham, but some veterans are so disgusted with their experience in the military that they will not go to the VA. The VA estimates that more than 100,000 veterans are homeless on any given night -- nearly half of whom served in Vietnam.
The holiday "means different things to different folks, and different things to me," Burnham said. "The sweeps are a part of my 4th of July."
Burnham recalled the 4th of July weekend in 2004, when the city ordered police to remove the homeless from downtown for the holiday weekend. A lawsuit was filed and settled in 2005 with the city paying nearly $80,000 in damages. New measures were also put in place to protect the homeless in St. Louis.
Today, several of the men from the shelter get temporary work at Fair St. Louis cleaning up the area before and after the event.
The shelter in the basement of St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Soulard sees about 60 residents a night, all male. The average income is under $500 a month, with 9th grade the average education. Half are working part time, and a third are chronically homeless, according to Burnham.
"We see a significant number who were institutionalized before they were 18," Burnham said. "Most of them have never lived in a stable housing situation -- certainly something I have taken for granted."
While some are quick to blame themselves for their situation, others feel as though the system has failed them. But each is still just as American as anyone else. "I've never apologized for being an American," one resident chimed in. A "Support our Troops" poster is proudly displayed on the shelter wall.
'It's A Special Holiday'
Last year, on America's 235th birthday, Courtney and Andy Moffat found out their new family was about to grow by one.
"It's a special holiday," Courtney Moffat said. "Last 4th of July I found out I was pregnant with her" -- meaning, Charlotte who was born on March 1.
As this 4th of July comes closer, the new mother has been thinking about what kind of person she wants Charlotte to become.
"I hope that she grows up to be an independent person and she has a strong personality," Moffat said. "I hope that she's active in her community."
Courtney Moffat added, "We plan on having more kids so I hope (Charlotte's) a good big sister and role model. I hope that she's a family person. We both come from strong families with deep roots in Kirkwood."
Moffat understands that as a mother, she also has to teach her daughter what it means to be an American.
"I do have responsibility as a mother to show more patriotism and show her what it means to be a good citizen," Moffat said. "I have to show her that being an active citizen is important."
As far as plans for the Moffats' first Independence Day with their bundle of joy, the couple, who has been married for three years, will park themselves in their front yard next to Kirkwood Park, where they'll be able to see the fireworks easily.
Ryan Schuessler, a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, is a summer intern at the Beacon..