Not For the World (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy's Poetry Day, and Brian's Thankful Thursday

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Imagine the scene:  high school summer-study students from the US, in Paris, on Bastille Day, just about the biggest party day of the year there.

The big event would be the evening fireworks, and every square foot of space outdoors anywhere near where you could see the show was crowded, thronged really, with revelers.

We stood in that sea of humanity, caught up in the joy and delight and celebrations when one very gregarious (and looking back on it, probably at least a bit intoxicated, to say the least) gentleman started to clap and stomp his feet, calling out a rhythmic, "Ay, ay, ay, ay!"

The people around joined him as he backed away and they did the same, until there was an empty circle around which they stood, with us joining them not knowing why, all of us clapping, stomping and chanting, until the gentleman who started it all very dramatically jumped into the middle of that circle and took a deep breath, then simply said, "Ahhhh!"

Everyone laughed at his antics, and it was a funny way to get the crowd to part so he could get a moment of peace to take that deep breath; when he started it up a second time, everyone played along but this time, he grabbed my friend and shoved her into the middle of the circle!

She played along and took a huge, deep breath, loudly sighing, "Ahhhh" as he had done to everyones roaring laughter, and we later noted that we wouldn't have wanted to exchange the experience of being there, witnessing that celebration, for the world.

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Exchange.      

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While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!

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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem:    

As much as i love sunshine and

lots of windows in my home,

i'm not so certain i would want

to live in a glass dome.

I'd need a bit more privacy

and have to get creative,

there's things my age should not reveal,

it likely would scare the natives!

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Brian of Brian's Home hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

Today i am thankful for the memories of being a student abroad during high school.  It taught me so much!

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Today is:

Barn Day -- celebrating barns, old and new, and their history and importance

Bastille Day / National Day -- France, French Territories and some former Colonies (Quatorze Juillet/Fete Nationale)

Birthday of Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden -- an official Flag Day of Sweden

Bohemian Club Annual Rites begin -- Bohemian Grove, CA US (if you are into conspiracy theories, this is supposedly when and where the male movers and shakers of the world meet for two weeks and decide the fate of the world for the next 12 months; the members of the club, including former presidents and other high level officials, do meet for a couple of weeks this time of year to have, among other things, a Cremation of Care ceremony)

Feast of St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

Festival of Millennial Fairy Olympics -- Fairy Calendar (Closing Ceremonies)

Macaroni Day

M&Ms Argument Day -- which are best?  plain?  peanut?  almond?  minis?  spend the day in a heated discussion with friends and end with an M&M feast

Nachi Himatsuri -- Kumano-Nachi Taisha, Nachi-Katsuura, Japan (one of Japan's 3 largest fire festivals, a grand summer festival and purification ritual, through tomorrow)

National Grand Marnier Day -- on Bastille Day, to show the friendship between France and the US

National Nude Day -- New Zealand (although now it's often called International Nude Day, and celebrated everywhere as a day to enjoy your beautiful human form)

Pandemonium Day -- internet generated; don't let the crazy things that happen in your life get you down, celebrate instead!

Republic Day -- Iraq

Runic Half-Month Ur begins (primal strength)

Shark Awareness Day

St. Kateri Tekakwitha's Day ("Lily of the Mohawks", first Native American proposed for canonization; Patron of ecologists, ecology, environment, environmentalism, environmentalists, exiles, people ridiculed for their piety, people who have lost their parents)

Tape Measure Day -- the first modern spring tape measure was patented this day in 1868 by Alvin Fellows of New Haven, NJ, US

Birthdays Today

Missy Gold, 1970

Robin Ventura, 1967

Matthew Fox, 1966

Jackie Earle Haley, 1961

Jane Lynch, 1960

Joel Silver, 1952

Tommy Mottola, 1949

Steve Stone, 1947

Roosevelt "Rosie" Grier, 1932

Polly Bergen, 1930

John Chancellor, 1927

Harry Dean Stanton, 1926

Dale Robertson, 1923

Ingmar Bergman, 1918

Douglas Edwards, 1917

Gerald R. Ford, 1913

Woodie Guthrie, 1912

William Hanna, 1910

Ken Murray, 1903

Dave Fleischer, 1893

Florence Bascom, 1862

Debuting/Premiering Today:

License to Kill(Film), 1989

"Spring Symphony"(Britten Op. 44), 1949

Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care(Publication Date), 1946

Today in History

Foundation of the Mission San Antonio de Padua in modern California by the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra, 1771

Citizens of Paris storm the Bastille and free seven prisoners, 1789

First ascent of the Matterhorn, by Edward Whymper and party, four of whom die on the descent, 1865

The Campanile in St Mark's Square, Venice collapses, also demolishing the loggetta, 1902

The United States $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills are officially withdrawn from circulation, 1969

A powerful solar flare, later named the Bastille Day event, causes a geomagnetic storm on Earth, 2000

The United States Government admits to the existence of "Area 51", 2003

In Borneo, a rainbow toad, believed to be extinct since 1924, is sighted, 2011

Neptune, discovered in 1846, completes its first orbit of the sun since that date, 2011

Scientists from the Large Hadron Collider announce the discovery of a new particle called the pentaquark, 2015

A huge iceberg looming over Innaarsuit village in western Greenland prompts evacations in case it calves, 2018

A new scientific study of the Andean condor, the world’s heaviest bird that can fly, among other things reveals that these birds can stay aloft for up to 5 hours without flapping their wings, 2020