It’s the 4th of July in the Great North! Light your sparklers and make some S’mores! This is summer as good as it gets here in Marion, Michigan. Of course, the best is yet to come when we celebrate Marion’s Old Fashioned Day on August 2. This weekend our family will gather to celebrate America’s birthday. In the evening we will head to one of the neighboring towns for fireworks at dusk.
Marionites haven’t always had to leave town for a celebration and fireworks. There was a time when July 4th was a big deal here; as big a gathering as August 7th became. Of course, that time has pretty well passed from active memory.
In those simpler times folks from all around the surrounding countryside rose early and did what needed to be done so that they could head for the Main Street of Marion and all of the festivities to be had. For the short time that Marion celebrated July 4th they did it up right. The day began with a 100 gun salute and the reading of the Declaration of Independence. There was a huge parade and food vendors offered up unusual treats at every turn. Firecrackers could be heard all day and the streets were jammed with visitors. It must have been something to see. Those days ended more years ago than anyone can recall.
Somewhere along the line, other towns picked up the July 4th ball and ran with it. These days Marionites head for the Greatest 4th in the North at Lake City, Harrison’s Fair Grounds where a huge display is launched, or for the fireworks launched over the lakes at Cadillac. Our personal choice is to head for the great fireworks show at Falmouth. The location makes for fabulous viewing for miles around and easy in, easy out accommodations. The folks at Falmouth know how to say Happy Birthday America with pyrotechnics.
I have to say that the best July 4th gatherings I’ve known were those spent at Lake George with the Gardener’s family. Bar-none, the best red, white and blue, proud to be an American, July 4th celebrations happened for us on the shores of Shingle Lake in the quiet little Clare County town of Lake George.
On a long holiday weekend like the one approaching, the Gardener’s large extended family gathered, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews. We rolled in from various parts, laden with food, varying numbers of children, swim fins and the occasional pet. Those who arrived first got beds, everyone else got a pillow and blanket and the choice of, in descending order of comfort; two folding foam bed-to-chairs, a none too comfortable recliner, an armless chair upholstered in dark blue fuzz and last, and certainly least, the click-couch. A long cardboard box would have served as well. We stacked kids in sleeping bags like cord wood.
For July 4th hot and humid weather is expected. After all, this is July at the Lake. We wanted no rain. There were bonfires and flares and fireworks to be had. Uptown hosted an afternoon parade, the size of which put many a larger town to shame. Our Oak (the Gardener’s father) helped build the Booster Club’s first replica train, a favorite in many parades. For many years his grandchildren waited in great anticipation of ‘Grandpa’s train’. It was a bragging point. Over on Lake George (the larger of the two lakes which comprise this old logging-to-resort town) a pontoon parade made a second round of the lake in the evening.
Just as Oak had managed to erase all signs of the previous year’s fire pit from his yard, July 4th arrived and we literally rekindled the spot anew. He knew it would happen, but put in his “I wish you wouldn’t…” anyway. Later, after we had burned the pile of willow sticks he’d accumulated from his detested tree, he would stand or sit by the fire for a while. Before long he would declare it was too cool or too damp or too hot. A devoted Tiger fan, Oak retreated to his wedge pillow and his favorite spot on the floor to watch the game while he could.
Mary always liked to get her kids big and small some sort of fireworks. Some year’s were golden, others not so much. Sparklers were a given. And so was the sputtering over the possibility of spent sparkler wires in the grass that Oak would do. One July 4th, a good many years ago, Mary pulled into a road side stand looking for a fireworks bargain.
“Lady have I got a deal for you!” the man said. She agreed and purchased several gross of what she thought were Roman candles which would provide showers of color and the “Ooh! Ah!” factor. What she got was a whole lot of bottle rockets with a zip, ffttt and pop factor. Not really hugely entertaining when there are better things about you.
Poor Mary took a great deal of ribbing over the rockets. We set them off for many summer gatherings and some outlasted both Oak and Mary. In fact, we found a bag of them atop the kitchen cupboards when we emptied the house and set them off the next 4th in a kind of bottle rocket salute.
On the evening of July 4th, just at dusk, someone down the way and across the lake set off professional, massive fireworks; the stuff you traveled to Harrison or Lake City to see. It was magic, right there in our own front yard. In the gathering night, faces bent skyward and we went “Ooh!” and “Ahhh…that was a good one!” at each heavenly burst. This grew into a tremendous tradition.
At one time the property owners association bought and distributed twenty-minute flares to be struck at the end of each dock when the fire whistle blew on July 4th evening. At 10pm the siren whaled (they still have and use a fire whistle) one short blast to indicate it was flare time. One by one, glowing red flares appeared about the lake, amid the bonfires, like a string of rubies in the night.
The kids lit sparklers and held them high pretending to be Statues of Liberty or Uncle Sam’s. Any degree of a moon was welcomed, although full was best. The stars sparkled bright above our bonfire and family and friends. It was the 4th of July in Lake George and there was no better celebration anywhere.
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This week’s photo is a favorite and my traditional July 4th post. There was nothing better than wearing your Bert and Ernie pajamas to ‘sparkle’ on the 4th of July, was there Carrie?
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Many thanks to Mike Lee for his 11th hour phone call this week regarding a couple of things in last week’s Postcard.
It seems that I suffered some kind of a brain freeze when I referred to Joanne Corner as the ‘late’ Joanne Corner. I certainly knew better and am here to apologize and declare that Joanne Corner, the three-time winner of the Homemaker of the Year title at the Marion Fair is alive and well and likely still doing many of the things which earned her that prestigious title!