Fourth Of July Celebrations Fizzle Out in Recent Years

When I was a kid, the towns I lived in always made a big production out of the Fourth of July.   There were outdoor festivals, public and private barbecues, parades, and the town always sponsored a fireworks celebration, usually held at the high school football stadium.  

When I was in high school, I was in the band, and we marched each year in a parade that culminated at the Revolutionary War battlefield in my town, which was across from the southern end of Philadelphia, near the Navy Yard.  It was a good time and I always enjoyed doing it.

And the year of my high school graduation, 1976, was the biggest 4th of July celebration I'll likely ever see in my lifetime, as it was the Bicentennial Year.  I have to say that the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, really outdid itself that year and I remember being quite proud to have graduated the year that I did.

Over the years, I've seen the celebration of this holiday slowly decline, though the town I currently live in still put on impressive fireworks displays as recently as the mid to late 90s.  I remember taking my son to the annual fireworks show down by the lake, at which half of the spectators watched from their own boats in the lake.

That's long gone, now, unfortunately.  Last night, there were no public fireworks celebrations whatsoever in my town, nor any parades or public barbecues.   The holiday passed relatively unnoticed, barring some obnoxious kids throwing firecrackers at passing cars and people in yards lighting sparklers and bottle rockets.

A shame, really.