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July 7, 2006
My Fourth of July
To my immediate right is Ambassador Pamela Bridgewater. I believe we are dancing to "Sweet Home Alabama."
To get into the ambassador's residence for the July 4 party, you must start by knowing the super-secret location of the off-site parking. I thought showing up in a cab might be like Tom Cruise doing the same to the party mansion in Eyes Wide Shut, but it was not a problem.
Then I got asked for my invitation. "I don't have an invitation," I said. "I'm a U.S. journalist, from New York. Some friends said I should meet them here." All of this is true, though rarely is it a persuasive argument for anything. But I got waved onto the shuttle bus.
The bus drove us past security, through the big gate and up to the ambassador's lawn, where she stood in a receiving line to greet her 1,000 closest friends. The immense lawn was dotted with bar stations, tents and a booth marked "Coney Island Hot Dogs." Waiters circulated with trays of sweet corn, chips and guacamole, baked beans, bratwurst, burgers and, inexplicably, falafel. The gyro rotisserie sat not far from the swirling margarita machine. People of all races -- many in African robes, some draped in chiefly amounts of gold -- mingled.
Marines presented the colors. A piped-in national anthem played and slowly people gained the heart to sing along. The ambassador toasted the president of Ghana. The Ghanaian foreign minister toasted the president of the United States, albeit with a hitch in his voice as he pronounced the name.
The entertainment was a six-piece band made up of young naval cadets, all white. They wore spotless dress whites and matched their fine musicianship only with their earnestness on tunes such as "Hey Ya," "Supernatural" and, particularly, Toto's "Africa." How many people get to step up to the mic and yell a phrase like "Thank you, Ghana!" before age 20? The first set featured only a couple of dancers, perhaps the office drunks, but by the time the band reconvened and kicked into the Black Eyed Peas, the fireworks on the dance floor were under way. Sadly, that was the only place to find them.
Posted by Adam Graham-Silverman at July 7, 2006 4:11 PM
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Posted by: Sherry Baker at November 13, 2008 1:29 AM