SMALL TOWN 4TH OF JULY
By Hall of Fame Personality Dave Pratt
Tommy 3-Fingers is once again setting off the fireworks at the county fairgrounds, with its old grandstand seating, gravel parking, chipped paint, and dim yellow lights.
Mrs. Petricelli will once again win the Apple Pie Contest blue ribbon, and for the Rotary Club, Mrs. Donnelly will be auctioning off another needlepoint of the American Flag.
The distinct small-town smell of cattle and horses from nearby stables mixes the smoke from hot dogs and hamburgers on a giant grill donated by the local Little League. The coaches are wearing barbecue aprons that say “Eat at Your Own Risk”.
Little kids will have their shirts off, running through the rotating sprinklers, trying to time them just right… but the fun is getting wet. Flavors of sno-cones are still outlining their small smiling faces, and the chamber of commerce is hosting their free face-painting booth again, over by the carnival games and small traveling midway that comes through town once a year. Its biggest ride is “The Zipper”, and of course every boy dared that special girl to ride with him.
Country music fills the air, usually old Alabama, Charlie Daniels, Eagles, George Strait, or maybe even some Skynyrd.
Earlier in the day was the big parade down Main Street. The town mayor owns the local car dealership, and he leads the parade, waving while pointing at nearly every family. He knows every single one. The pride of the town, the high school marching band, plays the fight song as loudly as possible. The drums are overbearing, drowning out the flutes and clarinets, and Timmy Friedman is once again trying to throw his sticks in the air to catch them. It works once every four or five times. Kids run from the sides and pick up the dropped sticks as the band passes by. Most of them are wearing American flags in their hats or painted on their cheeks. And of course, at the end of the parade are many ranch cowboys riding their horses, swinging ropes, shooting guns into the air, yelling, whooping, and waving.
The high school football team is riding in open pick-up trucks and tossing nerfs to the crowd, and the local firefighters’ truck is now and then spraying water high into the air as the crowd screams in excitement.
The only radio station in town is doing a live broadcast from the parade, but there are way more people at the parade than listening to the radio. The local paper’s one photographer is on hand too, as this is front-page news, along with 2 or 3 usuals getting DUI’s in the Police Blotter Report!
In the park, there is free watermelon from the Ladies’ Auxiliary, along with the watermelon seed spitting contest hosted by the Boot Barn. Guess what the winner gets?
Finally, the big Sadie Hawkins 4th of July dance. Every boy has tried to evade Stephanie Landers all week, hoping for Linda Lake to ask them. Most of the guys will skip the dance, and instead, throw water balloons from Rusty Evans’ Volkswagen Beetle. He is older and got his driver’s license early.
Some of the guys will throw firecrackers on the porch of the local brothels, giggling if the working girls come out in their lingerie. Others will try to bravely sneak a few pulls from a slot machine in one of the casinos, at the risk of the security guard calling their parents.
As the night winds down, the smell of freshly cut, watered lawns quiet the town.
Few will realize how these are the best times of their life.
***** Note: Dave grew up in the small town of Elko, Nevada, and was 14 years old during the Bicentennial in 1976.