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Nick & Carter Holiday #14
Independence Day, 1976
Sunday, July 4, 1976
It's America's Bicentennial! And it's a day the whole country has been anticipating for a while.
The original plan was for Nick and Carter to take some of the old gang out for a cruise around the bay and watch the day's fireworks up close once the sun sets.
Unfortunately, it's July in San Francisco and the forecast is for fog to settle in and not budge.
Fortunately, Nick comes up with a new plan and moves the festivities to a vacant apartment in a building he owns on Russian Hill that's above the fog line so that everyone can see the big, bright explosions celebrating the nation's independence!
Problem solved!
So, the 4th of July should be a walk in the park, right?
Well... between breakfast with a famous French director and actress, a Soviet defector who really doesn't like Nick, and a completely unexpected visitor from the past...
There might be a few metaphorical fireworks before the sun finally sets on the Golden Gate.
Still, at the end of the day, it's America's Bicentennial! Don't miss out on what promises to be great fun!
Welcome to a year of holidays with Nick Williams and Carter Jones!
This is the fourteenth in a series of short stories and novellas all centered around specific holidays.
Each story is a vignette that stands on its own and takes place from the 1920s to 2008.
This is a novella containing about 28,900 words.
It's America's Bicentennial! And it's a day the whole country has been anticipating for a while.
The original plan was for Nick and Carter to take some of the old gang out for a cruise around the bay and watch the day's fireworks up close once the sun sets.
Unfortunately, it's July in San Francisco and the forecast is for fog to settle in and not budge.
Fortunately, Nick comes up with a new plan and moves the festivities to a vacant apartment in a building he owns on Russian Hill that's above the fog line so that everyone can see the big, bright explosions celebrating the nation's independence!
Problem solved!
So, the 4th of July should be a walk in the park, right?
Well... between breakfast with a famous French director and actress, a Soviet defector who really doesn't like Nick, and a completely unexpected visitor from the past...
There might be a few metaphorical fireworks before the sun finally sets on the Golden Gate.
Still, at the end of the day, it's America's Bicentennial! Don't miss out on what promises to be great fun!
Welcome to a year of holidays with Nick Williams and Carter Jones!
This is the fourteenth in a series of short stories and novellas all centered around specific holidays.
Each story is a vignette that stands on its own and takes place from the 1920s to 2008.
This is a novella containing about 28,900 words.
94 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 8, 2020
5 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Frank W. Butterfield
123 books106 followersFrank W. Butterfield, not an assumed name, loves old movies, wise-cracking smart guys with hearts of gold, and writing for fun.
Although he worships San Francisco, he lives at the beach on another coast.
Born on a windy day in November of 1966, he was elected President of his high school Spanish Club in the spring of 1983.
After moving across these United States like a rapid-fire pinball, he currently makes his home in a hurricane-proof apartment with superior water pressure that was built in 1926.
While he hasn't met any dolphins personally, that invitation is always open.
Although he worships San Francisco, he lives at the beach on another coast.
Born on a windy day in November of 1966, he was elected President of his high school Spanish Club in the spring of 1983.
After moving across these United States like a rapid-fire pinball, he currently makes his home in a hurricane-proof apartment with superior water pressure that was built in 1926.
While he hasn't met any dolphins personally, that invitation is always open.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 20, 2020
Independence Day 1976 (Nick & Carter Holidays 14)
BY Frank W. Butterfield
Published by the author, 2020
Five stars
This ongoing year of holidays with Nick & Carter is really a gift that keeps on giving. Every one of these offers Butterfield’s fans insight into the characters whose lives have become so deeply etched into our imaginations. Some, however, hit harder and deeper for some of us.
Independence Day 1976 is a day in a year I remember vividly. I came out to my family in 1976, I moved in with my boyfriend in 1976 (and 45 years later, he’s still there); but I was also a student researcher on a huge Bicentennial project for the Yale University Art Gallery—a project that gave me a real taste of what my career was going to be. And, a couple of weeks after Independence Day, I turned twenty-one.
So, to “see” Nick and Carter, and all their friends, in their fifties, celebrating the Bicentennial Fourth of July as only San Franciscans can (i.e. bundled up against the cold!), sort of blew my circuits. Lord, how I wish they were real; how I wish I had actually known them.
Crazy, huh?
In Butterfield’s inimitable way, he introduces a sub-plot that’s at the core of this superficially social weekend. We have Jeanne Moreau and Louis Malle (I was studying French film in college, too) stopping in for brunch with the richest gay men in the world (who own a movie studio), and dragging along with them a weirdly bearded member of the French Ministry of Culture. Add to that the fact that Nick and Carter’s “servants” seem to have taken on a stray Ukrainian defector, and you have a subtext for independence that reminds us all of those happy times when the Soviet Union was our enemy, and our political life had not become an episode of the Twilight Zone.
There is also a foreshadow here, bolstered by talk of the Ramrod (a bar I never would have gone to, but where Carter is a celebrity, even at 54) and the Folsom Baths; this story is just a few short years before the shadow of the plague would change our world forever. We had no idea.
BY Frank W. Butterfield
Published by the author, 2020
Five stars
This ongoing year of holidays with Nick & Carter is really a gift that keeps on giving. Every one of these offers Butterfield’s fans insight into the characters whose lives have become so deeply etched into our imaginations. Some, however, hit harder and deeper for some of us.
Independence Day 1976 is a day in a year I remember vividly. I came out to my family in 1976, I moved in with my boyfriend in 1976 (and 45 years later, he’s still there); but I was also a student researcher on a huge Bicentennial project for the Yale University Art Gallery—a project that gave me a real taste of what my career was going to be. And, a couple of weeks after Independence Day, I turned twenty-one.
So, to “see” Nick and Carter, and all their friends, in their fifties, celebrating the Bicentennial Fourth of July as only San Franciscans can (i.e. bundled up against the cold!), sort of blew my circuits. Lord, how I wish they were real; how I wish I had actually known them.
Crazy, huh?
In Butterfield’s inimitable way, he introduces a sub-plot that’s at the core of this superficially social weekend. We have Jeanne Moreau and Louis Malle (I was studying French film in college, too) stopping in for brunch with the richest gay men in the world (who own a movie studio), and dragging along with them a weirdly bearded member of the French Ministry of Culture. Add to that the fact that Nick and Carter’s “servants” seem to have taken on a stray Ukrainian defector, and you have a subtext for independence that reminds us all of those happy times when the Soviet Union was our enemy, and our political life had not become an episode of the Twilight Zone.
There is also a foreshadow here, bolstered by talk of the Ramrod (a bar I never would have gone to, but where Carter is a celebrity, even at 54) and the Folsom Baths; this story is just a few short years before the shadow of the plague would change our world forever. We had no idea.
July 14, 2020
So, I know exactly where I was and what I was doing during the time period where this takes place (at the National Mall in Washington D.C. waiting for the Bicentennial Fireworks), so I really liked this story. I also liked what happened, bringing back some characters we hadn't seen in a while.
July 27, 2020
epub; 80 pages
A perhaps slightly longer than usual story - and certainly more complex as might befit a Bicentennial. Among the guest stars are Jeanne Moreau, and Tales of the City is mentioned. There are references back to events some 19 years earlier.
All in all a fine addition - and a tear-jerking final scene.
Bravo!
A perhaps slightly longer than usual story - and certainly more complex as might befit a Bicentennial. Among the guest stars are Jeanne Moreau, and Tales of the City is mentioned. There are references back to events some 19 years earlier.
All in all a fine addition - and a tear-jerking final scene.
Bravo!
July 5, 2022
Another great short in the holiday journey of Nick and Carter, though this is probably a tad longer than the previous ones I've read. In 1976, I turned 3(though only 2 1/2 at the time of this short) so the events of the time don't really stand out for me but Frank W Butterfield tells Nick and Carter's Bicentennial celebration in a way that you can't help but feel you lived it with the pair.
I really won't say too much to the story itself but I will say I felt like had I read their original adventures I might know a few ins and outs when it comes to one of their surprise guests for the holiday. Having said that, I wasn't lost by any means, enough is revealed to the readers that details fall into place.
We meet old and new characters(well new to me not having read the originals yet) and together they all find a place to celebrate our country's bicentennial and as always, Nick and Carter have each other and they have yet again bumped up a notch on my TBR list.
I really won't say too much to the story itself but I will say I felt like had I read their original adventures I might know a few ins and outs when it comes to one of their surprise guests for the holiday. Having said that, I wasn't lost by any means, enough is revealed to the readers that details fall into place.
We meet old and new characters(well new to me not having read the originals yet) and together they all find a place to celebrate our country's bicentennial and as always, Nick and Carter have each other and they have yet again bumped up a notch on my TBR list.
September 7, 2020
Chalk full of characters
I love all the Holiday books and this one is a fave because of all the characters woven throughout. I mean this story is chalk full of characters due to an Independence Day party that Nick and Carter threw with the help of Marnie of course. As I read the story I took the authors advice and had the playlist streaming in the background. I found myself bopping around with Nick, Carter and the gang enjoying the privilege of mingling with the 5 star crowd.
I love all the Holiday books and this one is a fave because of all the characters woven throughout. I mean this story is chalk full of characters due to an Independence Day party that Nick and Carter threw with the help of Marnie of course. As I read the story I took the authors advice and had the playlist streaming in the background. I found myself bopping around with Nick, Carter and the gang enjoying the privilege of mingling with the 5 star crowd.
October 4, 2020
These stories really don't relate to the title.
July 17, 2022
Happy Holiday
An interesting and informative interlude over one July 4th weekend. Best read after the first series so you know who everyone is.
An interesting and informative interlude over one July 4th weekend. Best read after the first series so you know who everyone is.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews