Golden Era Fourth

[TraditionalFrog]

What was the Fourth like in the Golden era? How did people celebrate? Did they have personal fireworks or was it predominately community/town displays? Did people have cookouts or special dinners?

 

[vitanola]

Someting like dis:

[video=youtube_share;sCSzeW5iaNU]http://youtu.be/sCSzeW5iaNU[/video]

 

[LizzieMaine]

The big events in most towns were the parade, followed by patriotic speeches in a town square, park, or other civic location. Town officials would speak, perhaps a local American Legion leader, and if one was handy, a local Civil War veteran might get up and say a piece. These speeches -- or "orations" as they'd be billed in the newspaper -- dealt with general patriotic topics, and might include a full reading of the Declaration of Independence or the Gettysburg Address. During the war era, these activities might be combined with a bond rally.

Neighborhood kids would be running around with small-scale fireworks -- some families might do something elaborate, but most kids made do with strings of firecrackers (or "salutes" as they were called), Roman candles, and small rockets. The neighborhood brat would be the one with the cherry bombs, sometimes thrown into an old oil barrel for additional noise. Little kids had sparklers and "snakes," which were things you'd light up and they'd uncoil into a long snakelike ash. Not very exciting, but they kept the tots out of trouble. (My mother almost set fire to her bedroom with a "snake" when she was six, so they weren't totally trouble free.)

The big fireworks display would come at night -- usually one town in an area would put the show on, drawing spectators from surrounding communities. The sky display would alternate with groundworks, which would *always* include the heads of Washington and Lincoln flanking a gigantic American flag.

The whole "cookout culture" was largely a creation of postwar suburbia, although some families might go to the shore or a local park for a picnic consisting of sandwiches or cold fried chicken, and it was also very popular to take in a ball game. Towns with pro teams usually had doubleheaders scheduled, and even if there wasn't a professional team, there was always an industrial league or "town team" on the field on the fourth. But in general, the holiday was more about a patriotic observance and less about the generic "summer fun" type stuff that goes on today.

 

[fashion frank]

What was the Fourth like in the Golden era? How did people celebrate? Did they have personal fireworks or was it predominately community/town displays? Did people have cookouts or special dinners?

I don't know about the rest of the Forum members here but I deck out my house with a lot of bunting ,I already have a 20 ft. flagpole in the front yard but I also put a smaller flag on the front porch of the house.

I notice people don't bother to fly "old Glory " like they used to, for example like on Flag day or what have you .

This weekend here in Rhode Island we will be celebrating Victory Over Japan
( V.J. Day ) ,we are the only state left that still does and I'm kinda proud of that, we are allies now but I don't like "whitewashing " over the past so I'm glad we still note it .
Besides it is a nice three day weekend for us here in "Little Rhody " !

All the Best ,Fashion Frank