The fourth of July is America’s favorite holiday. This is the one day that Americans get together and celebrate freedom. The possibility of being free is something that many people take for granted. Our founding fathers envisioned what this liberty would look like. They wrote all our freedoms in the Constitution. People celebrate this day in many ways.
Of course, when you think Fourth of July, you think fireworks. But fireworks are in the evening. During the day, there are all sorts of activities. There are hot dogs to eat, shows to attend and even parades. Children don’t go to school and we don’t have to work, either. It’s perfect, right? If that wasn’t enough, it is also summer. And we all know that with summer, we also have pools. For the people who have a pool at home, the fun can be in their backyard. If you live in places like Florida then it’s even better. You can invite your friends and have a blast at home.
We featured a story about a judge who at 94 years old, widowed. He knew he had to find a special activity so he wouldn’t be so lonely. He decided to build a swimming pool in his backyard. It was a very big project but it was worth it. Now that it’s ready, he invites all his neighbors to go swimming at his pool for free. Adults can go there as well as children.
The only thing he asks for is that children be accompanied by an adult to look after them. This makes each summer day a little less lonely for the judge. If you don’t have a pool at home and you can’t go to a water park you need to get creative. One way of doing this is by setting up a slip and slide. The only thing you need is water and a lot of plastic bags. If you can have access to a hill even better.
A group of people in Asheville, North Carolina thought of that idea. They grabbed all the plastic bags they could and set up a sweet slip and slide. They were having tons of fun and maybe they were also getting a little too noisy. One of their neighbors thought it was a little too much. What this neighbor did was a little bit too harsh. He called the police. The neighbor said that the people in the slip and slide were blocking traffic and were very noisy.
Officers Carrie Lee and Joe Jones were sent there to investigate. When they got there, they realized that there wasn’t any danger. People were not really blocking anything. Maybe they were being a little bit too noisy, but it was because they were having fun. They went to the neighbors who had set up the slip and slide and what they told them caught them off guard.
