Best of Beth Ashley: A memorable national birthday

Editor’s note: The IJ is reprinting some of the late Beth Ashley’s columns. This is from 2008.

For most of us, the Fourth of July is a pleasant long weekend. We enjoy it, but give little thought to its being our national birthday.

This Fourth was an especially pleasant one for me, but patriotic thoughts materialized, too.

My friend and I went to the Twin Cities parade, with front row sidewalk seats.

Ellie and Ricardo had set up several rows of chairs and a table for food...