4th of July in Australia

I’m not sure if I told you but we have recently moved to the Sunshine Coast in Australia to a community called Minyama, a suburb of Mooloolaba. It’s a great location, friendly people, lots to see and do and plenty of stores to shop in. I couldn’t be happier here.

Even though I’m happy in Australia, every 4th of July my American roots start to tingle and I miss being a part of the celebration. It’s winter down under but we’re in the northern part of Australia (like living in the South in the US because we’re upside down). Imagine my glee when I heard about an old-fashioned sing-along of American tunes for the 4th of July.

Not knowing we’re we were going — we’ve only lived here a week and a half — we found the hall in Cloundra about 15 minutes from our house. Precisely at 2pm the curtains opened to “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy” and went on to “This Land is Our Land” and other famous American folk songs. I thought I was in heaven! LOL My husband thought I was nuts but then he wasn’t brought up in the USA, was he?

Once the chorale finished, there were different groups and soloists but the sound system failed and the music was so loud that most of the people (including us) left at intermission. When the group sang with no microphone it was wonderful but a big voiced man and woman singing into the microphone had me and heaps of others with their fingers in their ears. Imagine!!

So that’s how I spent my 4th of July. How did you spend yours?