Saturday is a time of celebration. For some the celebration will begin Friday night as fireworks in Walnut Cove are scheduled that night, and a number of weekend-long celebrations begin Friday.

But for most in the local area, the celebrating will begin bright and early as area communities host July 4th parades, games, music, and eventually as the sky darkens, fireworks.

The day will be a day of red, white and blue everywhere, flags flying high, patriotic songs and sayings and just overall joy. It is the United States’ annual day of celebrating our country’s freedom. It is a day to remember and celebrate those who have fought to keep our country free.

As a little girl, I remember years of celebrating July 4th with a family cookout, then going to see fireworks at night, either at Tanglewood, or Kernersville, or wherever we happened to be.

One year, the state’s governor, Jim Martin, was at the Tanglewood celebration, where my dad was helping with the background as a member of the Winston-Salem Amateur Radio operators club. With my face decorated in camouflage paint after a visit to the military’s set-up, our family made homemade ice cream and got to share a bowl with the governor. We even had our picture made with him and the bowl of ice cream.

As a grown-up, I still enjoy spending time with family in the evenings on July 4th and then going to watch the fireworks. But my daytime consists of taking parade pictures at the Ararat Volunteer Fire Department’s annual celebration and dishing out hot dogs with the Ararat-Longhill Ruritan Club to the hundreds of people who attend the event.

It makes for a long day. And Sunday tends to be a day of rest and recovery, as I’m sure it was after the long hard fight our ancestors made to keep our country free and independent.

So, whether you just moved to the United States, your family immigrated here many years ago from another country like some of mine did, or your family can proudly admit to being recorded as one of those early settlers who helped secure our independence and freedom, we should all be celebrating this weekend.

And as much as I hate lectures, if your celebration includes consuming alcohol, please be sure to stay off the roads so that we have a safe, wonderful Independence Day weekend.

Wendy Byerly Wood is the associate editor of The Mount Airy News. She can be reached at wbyerly-wood@mtairynews.com or 719-1923.