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I originally published this on Washington Hotlist. On this Fourth of July, I republish it here. Happy Birthday, America.
Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. For purple mountains majesty above the fruited plain. America, America God shed His grace on thee. And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.
In 1893, a young teacher by the name of Katharine Lee Bates, scribbled these words into a notebook after ascending Pike’s Peak and witnessing the vast expanse of America in front of her. She never knew that the words she wrote would eventually be sang in churches, public forums and eventually during the 7th inning of many baseball games in the United States.
She had no clue that the words, “America the Beautiful” would resonate with so many people. She knew that they resonated with herself.
According to the story (reprinted here with no known attribution to the original article), after tweaking and rewriting some sections, the song would be reprinted in the Boston Evening Transcript where it was mostly well received, yet she was criticized for using the word “Beautiful”.
Oh, beautiful.
There’s a lot of talk these days about patriotism. George Bush made the point famous by using rhetoric like, “You’re either with us, or you’re for our enemies” and calling patriotism into question. Congress went along with the war rhetoric under the guise of patriotism.
It became an unofficial requirement for members of the media to display American flag lapel pins. An exotic dance of expectations, intentions, and cooperations ensued where patriotism was challenged.
They don’t understand patriotism.
Patriotism is a love of country. Patriotism is not an act demonstrating a love of country. Patriotism is respect and honor. Patriotism is not a shallow public display of affection. Patriotism is the ability to stand back and say, “Wow, I’m blessed to be an American”. Patriotism is not “America and no one else.” Patriotism is recognizing that, at the end of the day, despite disagreement we can all stand shoulder to shoulder in defense of the freedom to disagree.
America, the Beautiful.
Much has been talked about Barack Obama’s speech on patriotism the other day. I confess, I haven’t seen it yet.The old view of patriotism likes to hammer him because he doesn’t wear a lapel pin. He’s not Muslim, but if he was that’s okay. He’s got a middle name that brings back some memories, yet… he is patriotic as far as I can tell.
He loves his country. He will defend the right to disagreement. His core is baked into a tremendous love for this country, his country, OUR country.
The fact that a black man, today, can run for President is a beautiful thing.
America the Beautiful.
I like what my friend, Erin, has to say about this.
I have never considered myself a patriot.
I have never served in the armed forces. I have never served as a lawmaker, or heck, even a volunteer.
I thought patriots died for America, they lost their homes or sacrificed their sons. I thought they did what was asked when the United States was in need and always stood by her side.
Those people are why I never once considered myself even close to a “patriot.” Sure I have a loyalty to my country, but I also question her. While it may be one of the things that makes this country great, it was always one of the things I thought disqualified me to really be patriotic.
Guess I was buying the spin too.
The most noble and patriotic thing that an American can do is to question authority. That is what makes America beautiful, and that is patriotism.
Photo Credit: Jcolman
Written by Aaron Brazell on July 4th, 2008 with no comments.
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Ask any startup. The most difficult decision leading up to a public release is when and what? Some might argue that getting funding is the most difficult but a good startup avoids funding until later, if at all. Others might argue that the difficult part is getting the right mix of people and hitting milestones. That also is important, but not as important as the when and how.
Usually, a good launch product is the result of a perceived need. Or maybe a need not yet realized - it’s hard to say for sure. There’s some black magic involved in all that.
FriendFeed launched not long ago because there was an empty hole in Twitter - that was aggregation and conversation. FriendFeed figured out that, to be successful, it was going to target that emptiness in the highly popular Twitter experience.
Disqus and Intense Debate figured that, in order to be successful, they needed to target the missing piece in blog comments - that was reputation and reputation management across blogs. The two fight it out, post-launch, over which is going to differentiate it over the other.
In these cases, the timing of the launches was critical to the uptake. Twitter started experiencing significant problems and influential early adopters began getting itchy to be somewhere that scratched their itch.
Putting aside timing, the most important part of a launch is what. It’s feature-sets. It’s determining the balance between a fully developed roadmap of features and what is needed to “hook” early adopters and get them to stay.
Take Identi.ca, the new Twitter clone that is completely open source and is timely in that Twitter faithful are really, really close to burying the hatchet and simply abandoning it altogether. The timing could not be more perfect. Folks have been talking about distributing Twitter and relieving the strain of a centralized service at one time. Open sourcing the product does this, to a degree.
However, Identi.ca gets a big “FAIL” for its launch for a few very important reasons.
- There is no coherent way to deal with “replies”. Folks used to Twitter realize that when there is a river of content, and that’s what Twitter is, there must be a way to manage conversations. There must be a way to keep up with followers who are talking to you. In my working with Identi.ca, there is no way to do that and, while that might be coming, it wasn’t there at launch. Very conceivably, I’ve been lost forever and I generally have tons of followers as an early adopter. FAIL.
- XMPP doesn’t work. The one reliable way to reply that folks on Identi.ca were talking about last night was with XMPP, the protocol used for various IM clients including Google Talk. I could deal with replies that way if it worked but at some point, XMPP stopped working. I could receive, but I could not send. A one way conversation is a monologue. FAIL.
- OpenID integration must be seamless. I was pleased to see OpenID supported when I signed up. Unfortunately, today, I could not login with my OpenID account. If I can’t get in, I can’t use it. FAIL.
Some would say I’m being too hard on this startup. Screw that. Perform or get off the stage. There are very obvious and defined features that must be included in a microcontent site at launch. I’m not saying an entire roadmap needs to be worked out. No, get a working beta up and get testers in there. However, without replies, without reliable “offline” access (i.e. IM, SMS or client integration) I’m not going to stick around. Finally, direct messages would be a nice feature.
While I have high hopes for Identi.ca, I will remain there only to squat on the name “technosailor”. Bye, guys.
Written by Aaron Brazell on July 4th, 2008 with no comments.
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At 5pm Pacific time today (10am Melbourne time) I’m being interviewed by Wayne Hurlbert (his blog) on Blog Talk Radio.
If you’re around and have the time it should be a fun interview. I’m told there will be downloadable recording of it in the coming days also and I’ll post the link to it as I get it.
PS: Wayne has been kind enough to do a review of the ProBlogger book.
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Written by Darren Rowse on July 4th, 2008 with no comments.
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A friend of mine just landed a job. Congratulations to her as the job market is shriveling up. I won’t mention her name for fear it could cause complications at her new job but many of you know her.
She hasn’t worked for a company in 17 years, give or take, and has lived quite successfully as a consultant. However, she became enamored by the possibility of helping companies directly in her line of expertise.
She gave some thought to what she wanted to do and wrote this document, republished with her permission.
Overall function
I want to provide strategic direction that integrates new and social media opportunities for a dynamic organization. I see this function as working collaboratively with many departments and functions such as marketing, communications, PR, recruiting and retention, customer service, community management, investor relations and product development.
About new media and social media
I’m defining these terms not just as technology and communication tools, such as blogging, YouTube, Flicker, Twitter, Facebook, podcasts, social bookmarking and social networking, but also as a new realm of communications with a distinctly different culture that includes activities such as –
User-generated content
- Conversations and comments
- Personal branding and online profiles
- Personal and personable content
- Community management
- De-institutionalizing of information
- Rating content
- Tagging
- Link, links, links … and more links.
My ideal job looks like –
- Working across a number of departments – marketing and communications, sales and business development, HR for recruiting and retention, IT, customer service and PR.
- Providing strategic direction, internal consulting and project management.
- Interacting with staff at many levels, including executives, managers, creative teams, technical staff and admin.
- Designing, implementing and managing projects.
- Keeping abreast of emerging new media technologies and trends.
I am less interested in work defined by digital media maintenance, e.g.
- Keeping a website current.
- Managing online advertising and email campaigns.
- Handling technical functions of a company’s digital communications.
I am more interested in —
- Being at the forefront of new media.
- Identifying opportunities and developing strategies using new media.
- Designing, implementing and managing projects.
- Internal education, integrating new media and expanding an organization’s capacity.
Company / Environment
The environment in which I want to work is an organization that —
- Already has a strong brand, marketing department and PR component.
- Values creative business strategies supporting both short- and long-term goals.
- Has leadership that is open and pushing to be an adaptive and dynamic company.
- Has leaders who know they need to do something different – and fast, but may not have any strategy or plans yet.
The type of organization I want to work for is —
- A large corporation, even a national brand.
- Military organizations and federal government, or a government contractor tasked with bringing social media functions into the government.
- A small municipality with robust funding for creative economic and community development.
- I am less interested in nonprofit organizations.
- The industry in which I work is of less importance to me than the job function.
Location
- Company location is not important.
- Willing to travel.
- Looking to work in a creative and flexible environment, where technology and online
communications are robustly supported; meeting space is beautiful, and productivity and
results are valued over face time.
Notice how she defines exactly what she does and does not want. She knows specifics, down to the detail, on the principles of her employment. She knows that she may not be able to detail specifically which company or organization she wants to but she knows specifically the role she is looking for and what she wants to accomplish.
As unfortunate as this is, the economy is growing worse and more people are looking for work. You may be one of them. Instead of hitting the job boards with dervish-like ferocity, take a day or two alone and in a quiet place and write your own roadmap.
Knowing specifically what your goals are will greatly increase your chances of finding meaningful employment where you can do what you love and love what you do.
Written by Aaron Brazell on July 3rd, 2008 with no comments.
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Yesterday I announced the re-launch of the ProBlogger Newsletter (there have been 500+ new subscribers added to the list from last time bringing it to a total of around 16,000 - the first newsletter will come out next week) and since doing so I’ve had a number of questions about why I use newsletters, ‘how’ I deliver newsletter (AWeber), why I’ve chosen the tool that I have and why I have chosen a service that isn’t free.
Rather that responding to each person individually I thought it’d make a useful post for others considering adding a newsletter to their blog.
Why Do I Use Newsletters?
This is a common question and one that understandably puzzles some bloggers. Afterall - we’re all told that RSS is the best technology and email is dying…. or is it?
Back in 2005 I wrote a post titled Why Email Newsletters Can Improve Your Blog - I don’t tend to link back to posts that are three years old but my reasons for starting to use newsletters are still valid today:
- Increased Readership
- Promotion of Posts
- Build Community
- Improve Your Blog
- Drive Sales
- Email is familiar and Easy to Use
All I’ll really add to the list is that on the days that I send out my photography newsletters my blog comes alive with extra visitors, many more comments than normal, participation in polls, ad performance, affiliate sales and more.
If I happen to miss sending an email one week (or I’m late) the activity is not there and I get emails from readers asking where it is.
Which Tool Do I Use?
Let me start with the easy question - which tool do I use?
AWeber
I’ve been using AWeber to deliver my photography newsletters since last year.
Why AWeber?
Regular readers know my painful story of having to switch from a free newsletter service to AWeber so I won’t rehash it all here (you can read the full version here) - but the long and short of it is that I invested a lot of time and energy into building my newsletter list up over years with a free service only to find that it became unreliable and ended up suspending it’s service - leaving me with no way to get my newsletters out. At this time I began to investigate other services and after the recommendation of many friends and readers decided to switch to a paid service.
In addition to being convinced by the recommendation of others it was the feature list that attracted me to AWeber. Since signing up they’ve upgraded their service and feature list a couple of times - it’s always a good sign to see a company improving and developing.
Some of the features that I enjoy:
Unlimited lists in the one account - some providers charge per list. So I have a photography list (two actually) and a problogger list.
Unlimited emails - some services charge per email that you send. I can send as many as I want each month to as many lists as I want.
Autoresponders - put together a sequence of emails that you want to send readers so that when they sign up for a mini course they get them sent out in an order and timing that you choose. For example on my photography site I’m going to put together a 10 part free mini-course on the basics of photography that will get sent out to readers once a week over 10 weeks. It’s a great way to connect people into your course and add value for readers.
Deliverability - this was a big one for me. Using my last free service I was getting very high numbers of bounced emails and emails being labeled as spam. It wasn’t unusual to see 20-30% of my emails not even getting delivered. My last 5 emails with AWeber had between 0.1 and 2.6% of emails undelivered. This means literally thousands of readers are getting emails that previously didn’t.
Text and HTML Emails - I like to send HTML emails to my photography readers as they are a very visual bunch. AWeber just added 27 new templates to the ones they already had. As someone who is not very design capable these save me a lot of time and I’ve had a lot of great feedback from readers. For those readers who can’t get HTML emails there is the option to send a text version too.
Analytics - AWeber has more ways to track the activity of your subscribers use of your newsletter than I’d ever experienced before. Not only can you track which links in your newsletter get clicked (very very handy) it allows you to
- split test different versions of your newsletter to see which works best
- to see how different web forms on your blog perform
- to track what time of day readers open emails and click links
- to send emails only to certain subscribers (based upon what they’ve clicked previously)
- to track where on your website readers are going after they click on a link
The list goes on…. and on….
In fact there are so many ways of tracking readers and testing how your emails convert that it takes time to apply them all.
Blog Newsletters - I’ve actually not used this feature yet but it is handy to know that it is there. It allows you to turn your RSS feed into a newsletter. While you can do this with Feedburner (the service I currently use) AWeber gives a lot more control - it allows you to send these updates not only daily but weekly, monthly etc and to have more control over how they look.
Customer Service - Even before I switched to AWeber I was impressed with the support that they offered. They helped me transfer my previous lists across (it was a bit of a process and they do have to have some safeguards in place to stop Spammers using their system - but we got there) and have answered every question I’ve had of them - usually within hours. They have a live customer support instant messaging service which operates most hours which is very helpful.
Free Trial - There are a lot more features that I’ve not mentioned (and to be honest have not even discovered or tested yet) - but you can test them all for yourself. AWeber offers a free month long trial so you can play with them all to your heart’s content. This is how I got a feel for AWeber before signing up.
Why a Paid Service?
I asked this question of my friends who used AWeber and other paid newsletter services for a long time. There are so many free tools out there available to bloggers that I totally understand why we’re wired to ask it - however for me it came down to this:
- Newsletters are a Core part of my business as a blogger. They’ve become so valuable that I cannot afford not to have them.
- I cannot afford to have a service that disappears at some point or becomes unreliable in it’s uptime.
- I cannot afford to have a service that doesn’t deliver a high rate of email.
- I wanted a service that I could email and say ‘I’m paying for this - so fix it’.
- I wanted a service that had high standards and that didn’t get taken over my spammers (one of the reasons my last service became unreliable).
For me this meant I went with AWeber. I can understand why others choose not to pay for a service or go with other options - but for me the arguments and my previous experience said it all.
As mentioned above - Aweber’s model is not to charge per email or per list that you have - but it’s based more upon subscriber numbers. For me this made sense. I wanted the flexibility to send as many emails as I want to my multiple lists. I have also found that as my subscribers grow in number that the list becomes more profitable for me - so I can justify the extra expense when I jump up a price bracket.
Have Your Say?
AWeber will not be for everyone. Some have had good experiences of free services, others have chosen different ones and for others a newsletter is not something that they choose to use. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the topic of newsletters as an extra feature on your blog.
Do you do them? What service do you use?
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Written by Darren Rowse on July 3rd, 2008 with no comments.
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Where did people ever get the idea that this time of the year is considered “slow” when it comes to games? The volume of releases may not be as enormous compared to the usual fourth quarter deluge, but it’s still of considerable size and its quality is certainly not suffering. And have you been paying attention to the buzz? It’s as frenetic as a mall in December.
Aside from the high brought about by announcements of Diablo III and Chrono Trigger DS, there’s plenty of big news to go around. Fortunately, our channel is in the thick of things to deliver the latest in video games.
Image of Chrono Trigger is courtesy of Square Enix.
Tags:
chrono_trigger,
diablo_iii,
vgc,
video_games,
video_games_channel
Written by Mike Leaño on July 3rd, 2008 with no comments.
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A reader of this blog, recently, inquired about the difference between Designers and Marketers. I took some time to think about it and came to so many conclusions that it was Wicked Marketing entry worthy. This won’t be as snarky as my usual posts, but then again I’ve been known to surprise myself now and then.
The most basic definition of a Marketer is someone who promotes or exchanges goods or services for money. A Marketer is also known as a promoter, but in the very rare occasion a Marketing is also responsible for Public Relations (something entirely different, but yet the same). A Designer, on the other hand, is someone who creates or makes original print and web marketing materials, artwork and the like.
While the two work hand in hand on most projects very rarely are they the same person. A strong Marketer will have at least a working knowledge of the limitations of design. Marketers are responsible for creating, executing and tracking the marketing strategy and tactics a particular project or campaign. Marketers are also responsible for understanding their clients’ needs, consistency of message, target audience and demographics, establishing milestones and creating, or outsourcing the creation, of the text content that is to be used on whatever piece, or pieces, is needed. When they have a concept in mind, they generally create thumbnail sketches or rough drawings of what the pieces they need will be to best communicate the ideas to the Designer who bring them to reality. Last but not least, marketers are also responsible for defining a strategy for and tracking the Return On Investment (ROI) to show the effectiveness of the marketing piece or campaign. First and foremost, Marketers are strategists, tactical analysts and sales people. A Marketer, for the purposes of defining the name, could be a person, team of like minded individuals or firm (larger than a team of like minded individuals, but smaller than a football team).
A strong Designer will have at least a working knowledge of marketing strategies, branding, the psychology of what sells or attracts and the different between how to design for print work or web. The Designer will translate the ideas created by the Marketer and the client to a visual medium. The Designer may suggest alternative marketing pieces, offer multiple variations of the initial design for choices, and suggest alternative mediums to assist in marketing the client (namely to their own benefit). Designers are responsible for creating the deliverables (marketing pieces), providing the pieces in formats for use on multiple platforms (if needed) and working with the Marketer to provide the best possible avenue to produce and create the designed items. A Designer needs to understand the clients budget restraints, voice, target market, avenues of use, and be able to communicate any questions, comments, concerns or ideas directly to the client. First and foremost, Designers are creative people. That means they are one part artist, one part mind reader and one part fortune teller. A Designer, for the purposes of defining the name, could be a person, a group of freelancers, a studio or a firm.
So now that we’ve outline, roughly, what they are; let’s go over how they work together. Generally a client will either source out their Marketer and/or Designer. If they have found their Designer first, hopefully, the Designer will suggest that the client uses a Marketer to come up with the strategy and allow the Designer to do what they do best…design. The Marketer will work with the client to determine their desired outcome, target audience, understand past marketing attempts, create a scope of work as defined (or limited by) a budget, and create the overall message. The Marketer will present a few rough ideas to the client for their selection or find one they feel strongly will best represent the client and run with it. The Marketer will then bring in the Designer to meet with the client, get a feel for the visual personality of the strategy and answer any questions the Designer may have regarding past work(s) the client has created.
From there the Designer goes away to that magical land called creation and waits for their respective Muse to hand down a few ideas. Mine tends to wait till the last possible second and then overload me with more choices than I can possibly present. Those ideas are then turned into rough drafts to present to the client. Notice I didn’t say finished works? The Marketer presents the ideas to the client who then has to choose one, or two. The designer gets any notes and feedback on the selection, returns to the land of creation and brings back a more polished product. This process could repeat several times. We’ll fast forward as thought they hit the proverbial home run on the first try.
The client signs off on the designs and the Marketer and Design begin their process of finding the best possible avenue to have the piece(s) created. Once done, the Designer steps out of the picture, tips his/her hat to the client and waits in the wings for the next piece, revision or what have you. The Marketer takes over at that point and, depending on the strategy, distributes to piece to the client or out to the avenues they determine them to go. After the run of the piece, the Marketer will look at the overall success of the project/campaign and report back to the customer with suggestions, improvements, or a finished report.
Please note I said “Generally” when this example started. Marketers and Designers are fickle people and the route that a project could take varies depending on both the Marketer and the Designer. The example was, in my opinion, the simplest route that a project could go without going into too much explanation. I only have so much space for text you know. Besides, I’m pretty sure you don’t want to get bored reading this.
Good Marketers and Designers are the mad scientists of their industry. They create pieces that sometimes won’t see the light of day for sometimes close to six months. When they create these pieces they have to look into the future and feel confident that these strategies and designs will still be relevant and appealing as they are when they created them.
What you need to understand, as I close this extremely long entry out, is that both Marketing and Design is subjective. Not everyone will like every concept or idea. These things are organic and can often take a life of their own. As a Marketer or Designer, you’re trying to get as many people you’ve never met to connect with something strongly enough for them to remember it firmly enough to tell other people about it, pull out their hard earned cash to pay for it and simply just engage them in such a way these pieces stand out in their day to day lives. Marketing and Design are not two things you should go lightly into assuming everyone can do. You’re bound to spend a lot of money on things that bring you very little if you do.
In closing, the difference between a Marketer and a Designer is vast, but ultimately you should feel confident in both enough to trust your business, project or event will be a success…whatever you decide that to be. I’d love to hear the experiences you’ve had with the Marketers and Designers in your past. I’d also like to know that you found this entry informative and educational. Drop me a line.
Written by Mike Dougherty on July 3rd, 2008 with no comments.
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One of the innovative new affiliate networks to hit the market in the last 6 months is Pepperjam Network - and today they are offering you $10 as a signup bonus for becoming one of their publishers.
If you want to earn money by recommending products from companies like eBay, Cartoon Network, StarTrek.com, Jelly Belly, Sesame Street, Net Shops, SEOMoz, igourmet and many more (they seem to add new ones every day or two) then PepperJam is a network that you’ll want to test run whether you get the signup bonus or not because they are one of the fastest growing online marketing networks going around (according to MarketingSherpa).
To get the $10 signup bonus you just need to
Not bad - PLUS you’ll then have access to a wonderful new range of affiliate programs to promote to help you make more.
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Written by Darren Rowse on July 3rd, 2008 with no comments.
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I want to give a shout out to Brian Beutler of Media Consortium who was shot last night in Adams Morgan. I wrote on it over at Washington Hotlist a few minutes ago.
I have never met Brian. I hope to some day and chances are good since he’s in stable condition and expected to make a full recovery.
Brian is part of the political blogosphere that those of us covering technology rarely get to see because worlds don’t overlap. However, they should. If there’s anything the recent trip to Washington D.C. by Robert Scoble shows, it’s that our world in tech is very much affected by the policies established by the government. Political bloggers fill that niche and we should be paying attention to them, especially now during the political season.
Tragedy is never welcome. It was only 7 months ago today that my friend and fellow blogger, Marc Orchant, passed away suddenly in his home office. That rocked the entire tech space, as it should have. This hits closer to home, for me, because it’s in Washington, and more specifically Adams Morgan where I spend a good deal of time.
Folks, we cannot live in fear. District officials will point to this and other acts of violence and rattle the cages of people, just like the Bush Administration has done concerning terrorism. We cannot live in fear. We cannot let this control our lives.
Brian, I am praying for a speedy recovery. I’ll be paying closer attention to you and your writing, and I expect you’ll have a great many things to say about this. I’m glad you’re okay. Get better.
Photo Credit: myglesias
Written by Aaron Brazell on July 3rd, 2008 with no comments.
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While the writers of the b5media Lifestyles Channel may be scattered about globally, one thing we all have in common is a celebration of fireworks. Whether it’s the U.S. and our Fourth of July - or a very different kind of holiday in Perth - we all know the unique smell that penetrates the air and the sense of freedom the mere sound of them instill. There is truly something so divine about a celebration of fireworks - they do create some of the most treasured memories.
Chloe of Tangled Thread shares a few festive fireworks and needlework patterns.
Kerri and Cory at Marriage Actually talk about why having a shared past is one of the best parts about being married.
Heather at A Creative Journal shares her first memory of firecrackers with a view from Australia.
Christine at Mad Cropper remembers Guy Fawkes Day, a day celebrated in New Zealand with lots of fireworks. Find out why Guy Fawkes is celebrated by the English and most commonwealth countries. It is indeed a blast from the past!
Mary Emma at Quilting and Patchwork, provides a quiz for her readers. See how many of the quilt designs you can connect with historical Americana - events, objects or people.
Marye at Baking Delights reflects on just how much menu’s have changed over the years while at Kettle and Cup she shares a modern twist that many are sure to love with her Non-Alcoholic Long Island Iced Tea
Kelly Saunders at Thrifty Mommy shares her favorite 4th of July memory - I just can’t spoil the surprise - check it out.
Char and Christine continue Camp Weary Parent with this weeks Patriotic activities: Star Spangled Rocket and a week full of other fun projects
Marcie and Mary Emma are blasting through books with Fourth of July and summer recommendations at One Book Two Book. Make sure to check out Fourth of July Books for Teens and The 10 Best Fourth of July Picture Books
Linette at Robust Cooking shares 10 Healthy 4th of July Dessert Ideas. At Mother Earth’s Garden she calls out the old saying about corn - “Knee high by the fourth of July.” At She Knows Parties, she shares fond memories of her summers and holidays as a child.
Karen at Thrifty Mommy probably has the most reason to celebrate the fourth as anyone I’ve heard - join Karen as she shares family photos of one of the most memorable nights in her families lives.
Sandy at All Holiday Cafe provides us with a list of when Independence Day is celebrated in various countries around the world.
Christina at SoloMother shares her own experiences of celebrating the 4th of July in the nations capital.
Susan at PlayLibrary shares her memories of playing the classic game of Zimm Zamm during her family’s annual July 4th barbecue celebration.
Eliza at Babylune reflects back on early holiday celebrations with baby on board and looks to this years celebration - their first out of the military.
And finally, there’s me - Gayla at MomGadget - Without fail, each year my memories race back to an earlier time when life was much simpler and we’d celebrate our summer holiday with relatives down in the holler in the hills of Kentucky - this year - I share a Bluegrass Kinda Fourth of July.
To all our readers in the U.S. - we wish you the happiest and safest of holidays - and everyone else, thanks for allowing us to share our own memories with each of you.
Written by Gayla on July 3rd, 2008 with no comments.
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