A THANK YOU TO MY NIECE AND HER HUSBAND

Over the weekend my granddaughter and I spent time in Wisconsin with my sister-in-law, her husband and my niece and her husband and two children. It was a wonderful weekend and I want to say THANK YOU to my sister-in-law Dottie for inviting us and to Karen and Lance for taking my granddaughter under their wing and showed her a most wonderful time. Thank you again.

DREW CAREY AND THE PRICE IS RIGHT

Rosie O and now Drew. What are these people thinking? Drew has about as much personality as a wet hen. I bet the show will not last a year with the type of people they are choosing to MC the show. I wonlder if Bob Barker has anything to say about the picks.

4TH OF JULY PARADE

On this hot day and my daughter and grandchildren being in from Texas I thought it would be nice if we joined my son and his family to watch the Merrillville Indiana 4th parade. We picked a nice shady spot along the route and waited for the parade to pass. What a joke. What parade.
First came the fire engines and other rescue vehicles, of course with the sirens blaring. This was ear shattering for about 20 minutes. Then there was a 15 minute lag until the next wave of whatever came by. Oh yes it was all of the elected officials from the county, throwing candy and smiling from ear to ear. Who was who no name tags and if you were not personal friends of their how would you know who was who. The entire parade contained fire engines, two marching bands, politicians, about 15 trucks and vans from some auto glass shop, one float (if that's what you want to call it), about 10 Shriners, 20 corvettes from the Indiana Corvette Club, a few churches and in conclusion a police car to announce the end of the parade. There was no parade control to keep the people from being run over by the parade cars as they rushed to gather candy and of course the elected officials and the helpers did nothing to tell the people to get back. Not a good time at all. Next year we will go to the Crown Point parade.

FESTIVALS

You can almost compare this time of year with Christmas. There is a lot of excitement around the 4th of July with all the festivals. Every town, city, village and neighborhood is having some type of festival. This is wonderful. The music, carnival rides, food, drink and just getting out and seeing friends. Everybody should be having a good time. But along come the punks with their hats turned around or worn sideways who think they rule the world. In a village near where I live that's just what happened. Disrespect for the people attending the festival but also the police officers there to see that everything stays respectful. But no, these guys and girls push people around and start fights and drink while underage and can't handle it. This festival had to be shut down 30 minutes early because of several teenagers fighting in the middle of the festival. Hats off to the police and others who quickly put this kind of behavior to rest. Job well done. Now if we can just keep the other trouble makers out of this season of festivals it would be perfect. HAPPY 4TH OF JULY.