Johanna Thompson
While my dad and sister were always fighting and yelling was common in my house, I was the good boy to both my mom and dad. Nevertheless, we still had many great moments as a family, despite my sister being 6 1/2 years older than me. Once she moved out, we still had great memories as a family of three.
The warmest memory of my entire family was actually an annual event we had in our backyard in Saratoga, California from 1963–71. We had an amazing backyard where my dear sweet Grandma did amazing gardening that helped us have apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines, oranges, apples, tomatoes, and among other odd things, a pomegranate tree (more like a bush).
Everything sprouted amazing fruit every year and our sour and sweet cherry trees were our favorite and the birds’ fav too! So, our backyard was often the scene for special events and the Fourth of July every year was one for not just my family, but some of my friends and my sister’s friends. Dad and I would go to the fireworks stand and purchase a huge package that was good for probably an average of 40 minutes of fireworks. It was a big deal and I had friends come over to enjoy the spectacle each July.