Fourth of July memories, homemade root beer

The following 4th of July story was sent to me by Hap Howard who grew up in the Hammond area and was also well known in Fort Scott. He and I became email buddies for a few years before his death. This is Hap's remembrance of the way it was celebrated in his childhood days.

My dad always wanted sweet corn on the 4th of July. It might not be fully developed, but come heck or high water, we had sweet corn on the 4th. It was always the best, because it was the first of the year. Another thing that my sister and I always looked forward to on the 4th was home made root beer. About a month before the 4th, my mother would take the bowl from the cream separator and put it on the counter top in the pantry. We always got to "help" mother make the root beer. It started with water, sugar and Hires RJ root beer extract. Such a nice aroma went with it and visions of root beer danced in our heads.

Our job was to help put the root beer in the bottles that we had been saving and collecting all winter. Then we got to help "cap" them. We had a capper on the wall and this was the only time of the year that it was ever used. The bottles were stored in a heavy cardboard box in the pantry closet.

It took about a month to "work" and mellow and by the 4th, it was ready and so were we. A month or so before July, we would receive a fireworks catalog from Polk Fireworks in Polk, Ohio. Funny thing is that they could sell out-of-state, but not in Ohio. My sister and I would pour over the collection and usually ended up ordering a family pack that had assorted night works. We usually got some locally too. We always dreamed of having a fireworks stand on US 69 highway, but that never developed. We were too greedy and wanted to shoot them all ourselves.

My sister would only shoot lady fingers, which didn't make much noise. Dad fixed a cannon from a piece of pipe fastened to a board. Lighting a firecracker and tossing it was verboten. I probably tried that anyway when no one was looking.

It always seemed like forever, waiting for the 4th to arrive. But arrive it did, in all its glory. My sister and I spent the day shooting off our hoarded firecrackers. When it was about dusk, Dad would shoot off the night fireworks. Then, we would have the first taste of Root Beer. In the process of carbonating it would become slightly alcoholic, and for that reason we were only allowed one glass of home made root beer.

When my son was about five years old, we tried to make root beer. I had some heavy Champaign like bottles and tied the corks on like the original bottles had been corked. At the appointed time, I set a bottle in the sink, and very carefully removed the cork. We had a reaction that was somewhat like a volcano erupting and I was glad that it was in the sink. It had a nice aroma, but made a very sticky mess. The last couple of bottles were taken to the sand box in the back yard. My son got a kick out of my "openings". I had redwood sides on his sand box, I laid the bottles so that the neck was elevated. Then using a broomstick with a nail, I untwisted the wire that held the cork in. With just a little tap, the cork popped out and went at least 50 feet across the street and into a parking lot there. Paul got a kick out of it and really laughed. He didn't use the sand pile much until a couple of rains washed the sand clean. I don't know why mine got so active, Mom's didn't do that.

I guess our youth must have been the Good Ole Days, at least they are stored away for happy memories.

-- Written by Hap Howard