“Vacation Week” is almost here! That’s what the week of the Fourth was called where I grew up. All the textile mills and all the ancillary facilities of West Point Manufacturing Co., later WestPoint Pepperell, would close for that period. That was when everyone in the organization got their one week of paid vacation. A lot of families lit out for Panama City, where, it was said, they would have to sweep the lint off the beach after the mill workers had returned home. We never went to PC. My family usually would visit one of my father’s brothers, or we would stay home and help Daddy with some ambitious home-improvement project. Needless to say, I preferred visiting my uncles and cousins. One uncle lived in Mobile, which meant trips to the nearby beaches there, and the other lived in Huntsville, where NASA was blowing and going. As much as I was enthralled by manned space flight at that time, I think I preferred the beach. Sorry, Uncle Ray.