All About Barefoot Sandals

July 4th – Independance from Shoe’s Day!

As we celebrate July 4th as the day the Continental Congress adopted the final draft of the Declaration of Independence let’s also declare our independence from shoes!  Let those tootsies free – wiggle them in the sand, relax and put them up.  Get rid of those tight, sweaty shoes that confine you – give your feet their independence.   Make it a Jewels by Jan Barefoot Sandals Day!

Now for a bit of history about this great holiday. Did you know that Massachusetts Bay turned into a HUGE glass of iced tea one day in 1773?  Yup!  Partly as a joke, Samuel Adams and other Bostonians dressed up as Indians and dumped a cargo of the India Company Tea into the Massachusetts Bay. There’s much more to the story of course but that had to be one, big tea party!

What about this: New Castle, Pennsylvania, is home to the Vitale Fireworks Display Company, responsible for more than one thousand fireworks shows every year.  1922 Constantino Vitale brought his expertise at making fireworks from Italy to the United States. He passed his secrets on to his four sons, and since then the company has been making Americans exclaim “ooohhh” and “aaahhhh” at the lighted colors in the sky on July 4 and other occasions.  Who knew it was an Italian that started all this!

What do you know about the Liberty Bell?  In 1752 the new bell arrived safely from England, but at the first blow from a hammer to test it, it cracked.  After being recast twice and used for every event of national importance for over 80 years on July 8, 1835, while tolling for the funeral procession of John Marshall, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the great bell cracked…for the last time.  No one living today knows the voice of the Liberty Bell, for it has never spoken since 1835.

And finally, the song and words to Yankee Doodle were actually a harvesting song in 15th century Holland.  In England, the tune was used for a nursery rhyme, and later a song making fun of Puritan church leader Oliver Cromwell, because “Yankee” might be a mispronunciation of the word “English,” and “doodle” refers to a dumb person.   So…what would a Yankee Doodle Dandy be?  I don’t think I even want to know.

Enjoy the holiday everyone!