A short story recorded by Kathy McAleese at the 75th anniversary of the Westmorland Neighborhood 4th of July celebration.
4th of July story by Kathy McAleese
This recording was created on 07/04/2016. You can view the original file and full metadata in our digital repository.
Click to expand and read the transcript
[START OF RECORDING]
Interviewer: Alright… Hello it’s July 4 Celebration at Westmorland Park and I’m talking with Kathy MacAleese who has been a long-time neighbor and a fantastic teacher at the Madison Waldorf Schooolllll [Narrator Chuckles]. Hi Kathy!
Narrator: [Chuckes] Hello Pei Pei.
Interviewer: How are you?
Narrator: Happy 4th!
Interviewer: [Chuckles} Happy 4th.
Narrator: [Laughing] I’m good!
Interviewer: Well… Woo, so! Welcome! And thank you for having me interview you.
Narrator [Cutting her off]: Well I’m happy to do it.
Interviewer: Yeah! So… How long have you been coming to the 4th of July celebration?
Narrator [Pause]: Pretty… much nearly every year since I moved to the Westmorland neighborhood…
Interviewer [Interjecting]: And when was that?
Narrator [Continuing previous sentence]: Um that was... Oh gosh… Ummm at least a decade ago. [Makes a noise indicating she believes her summary is correct] Uh-huh.
Interviewer: And what do you think—has anything changed or… remained much the same?
Narrator: Well it’s certainly—there’s certainly more people here. More… more games and events and a petting zoo… Umm… Yes, it’s new and expanded, new parade route that practically went right by my house today… Um… It’s—it’s great. Yeah.
Interviewer: Anddd…
Narrator [Cutting her off]: I love it every year though.
Interviewer [Continuing]: And what have you been doing today during this festivity?
Narrator: Umm today? Umm I watched the parade and uh… have been doing a lot of socializing and we… uhmm… Mike and I and Thomas did the cakewalk. And we, we, Mike and I sat on either side of a woman, named Mary, who had already won two cakes, and was trying for a third. And I was ten and Mike was eight and she was nine and guess who won the cake? [Laughs]
Interviewer: Lemme see….
Narrator: We figured it just wasn’t our day when Mary won her third cake.
Interviewer: Wow!
Narrator [Cutting her off]: Yeah…
Interviewer: Does she wanna share? [Looks at Narrator] No?
Narrator: She said, actually, she was going home. [Laughs]
Interviewer [Over each other]: With her three cakes!
Narrator: [Over each other; moderately indecipherable]: She just—to enjoy her cakes! [Laughing] And now I’m having uh… uh... a free beer!
Interviewer: Alright so other…
Narrator [Cutting her off]: Which is a new adventure.
Interviewer: Other than the cakewalk today. Now in the past, what are some other, maybe a favorite activit[y] from the past celebrations?
Narrator [Thinking]: Ohhhhhh…. Let’s see… Uhm… I don’t do a lot here, I mostly… mostly socialize. There’s often families from the school here that I talk with, and our neighbors and friends and…catch up with some people that I sometimes only see once a year down here at the Westmorland Park. So…
Interviewer [In the background]: Oh yeah.
Narrator [Continuing]: I don’t—I’d—otherwise I don’t do…a whole lot besides the cakewalk.
Interviewing: Yeah…yeah, and it—
Narrator [Cutting her off]: My, my son did the—the dunk tank and he was the first—he reportedly was the first to [makes clicking noise] dunk the…the dunk-ee…
Interviewer [Laughs]: OK.
Narrator [Continuing]: Today… [Sighs] Uhm…
Interviewer: [Indecipherable]
Narrator [Continuing]: Listened to the music, we came down last night for a little bit and listened to the…the—
Interviewer [Cutting in]: The band?
Narrator [Continuing at the same time]: Jazz music.
Interviewer: How was that?
Narrator: It was great! Yeah, it was very good.
Interviewer: Was there a particular piece that you really enjoyed?
Narrator: Umm… I’m trying to think of the name of it—it is um—“Weatherly Port,” maybe? Something like that?
Interviewer: Ok…Ok…
Narrator: Yeah…Wow…
Interviewer: So, what do you plan on doing um—a little bit further down the road here—
Narrator [Cutting her off]: Today?
Interviewing [Continuing]: anything else you want to participate in or maybe…volunteer to do? [Narrator laughs]. There’s still time!
Narrator [Laughing]: There’ still time to volunteer. Ummm…I don’t know that I'll do that today. [Laughs] I’m in a non-volunteer mode—I’m in that mode a lot [Interviewer laughs]. We’re…I probably will just wander around and find Thomas. I, I might go through the petting zoo with him…um if he’s game. And then we’re going home to have a, a cookout with uh—some of my boys…And um…then we’ll go see the Monona fireworks.
Interviewer: Sounds great! Thank you so much for your time.
Narrator: You’re welcome.
Interviewer: Have a great day!
Narrator: Thank you Pei Pei!
[END]