Thanks Dennis! Happy Fourth Everyone! I was about to start a thread about fun memories of past Fourth of July celebrations, so I'll just put them here.
My earliest memory was the parade in Watsonville, Calif. in 1962. It was a big classic marching band, all scarlet and gold and lot's of brass instruments, horses, cannon, the whole shebang. The parade scene in the movie "East of Eden" is actually very close to what we saw and was filmed in Watsonville around 1954.
In our small home town just north of Watsonville the tradition was for the volunteer fire department to collect scrap wood and cardboard from all over town and build a HUGE bonfire on the beach, and torch it off on the night of the Fourth. Of course as mischievous kids we had our own tradition of sneaking up to the huge fire and nonchalantly tossing in a cherry bomb or two that we had been saving all year and then running like heck before the big explosions and flying sparks. Dangerous as heck, naturally, and of course the fire department all knew it was us doing it, but they let it ride as part of the celebrations...
Nowadays we are a bit lower key here in Mendocino, with a parade with the usual goat-pulled carts piloted by kids in costume, and the "All Susan Marching Band" which consists of all women in town named Susan playing kazoos. And of course the fire department with all trucks with sirens blaring. And they still allow small bonfires on the beach in the evening with a fire truck standing nearby just in case...
Anyways, Happy Fourth to All.
