Book of Days

John Adams wrote his wife Abigail in 1776 that he hoped every Second of July would be celebrated with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other. It was in Philadelphia on July 2, 1776, that delegates of the thirteen colonies at the Second Continental Congress officially voted for independence, Adams amongst them. Two days later, on the Fourth, came the adoption of the Declaration of Independence that was penned by Thomas Jefferson. Adams didn’t get his way about the day we celebrate (even then, we Americans found plenty to bicker about, and it was the Fourth of July camp that won over the Second of July camp), but he was pretty spot on about the ways we celebrate, even today. Illuminations, or fireworks: they go back all the way to the very first July Fourth celebration, at Bristol, Rhode Island, in 1777. And we’ve not stopped using them since.

I know fireworks upset pets and wildlife, but still, I love them. The booming and the sparkle in the warm night sky––these things are central to Independence Day, to summer in America. This is the time of year, too, where I get a little nostalgic for Great American legends like Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed and Pecos Bill, and you know, here we are––three, four, five hundred years later into our troubled history––and a lot of these tales are not very politically correct, we know this, but still, I love them. They may be a whitewashed version of Americana, but I take them for what they are, warts and all.

It can be confusing, compromising these feelings, valuing tradition while being sensitive to the staggering number of peoples who have been done wrong through our history. And here we are today. These have not been the best of days for Democrats like me. Something fundamental has boiled up to the surface in the American experience in the past few years, something that makes some of us feel fear where others see progress and it goes in both directions and there are times lately where the chasm feels impossible to bridge. Perhaps we can take comfort in knowing that the people of this country have always disagreed on things; generally, we find ways to come together. It is what we do. Much has happened recently that bewilders me and makes me, perhaps for the first time in my life, embarrassed by what our elected officials say and do––and I am not easily embarrassed. But on the flip side, I am immensely proud of the fact that I live in a place where we can say these things and assemble to voice our discontent. Where any of us can be activists.

And so the fireworks will explode tonight over the Lake Worth Lagoon and Seth and I will be there, my mom and sister, too, I hope, on the grass, watching it all unfold. We’ll come back home after and Haden will be asleep somewhere; she never seems bothered by the commotion overhead. But I’ll have the pets in mind who are bothered, and their humans, too, for I do have compassion for them. And all day long, I’ll be singing this song in my head, just as I do each Fourth of July, just because it’s by X, a good old fashioned activist band who had plenty to say and who just happened to record a song called 4th of July. There’s a great deal of complexity to all the issues we are dealing with today and to the history that brought us here. Why should our national holiday be any different?

We Americans like to bicker about things but we do come together on occasion, and one of those occasions is today, the Fourth of July, Independence Day. Most of our celebrations across the country will at least touch upon some of the traditional iconic customs of the day: grills and pies and a good bit of drinking with music and fireworks, outdoors, accompanied by plenty of red, white, and blue.

I have always loved the Fourth of July. It was supposed to be my birthday, but I arrived early (I haven’t been very good about early arrivals since), but Independence Day tends to make my birthday a days-long celebration all the same, which is kind of nice. When I was a boy, we would usually watch the fireworks from our home, which was not all that far from the municipal fireworks display at Firemen’s Field. My mom and dad and sister and grandparents would sit on lawn chairs in the front yard, faces pressed to the sky, while I can remember at least once or twice being granted the okay to sit on the trunk of the car to get a little closer, a little more height, to get a better view.

That was in the 1970s and it was not that different then from the way it was years before and not that different from the way it is now. The first known celebration of Independence Day was at Bristol, Rhode Island, in 1777. There at Bristol were the music and the fireworks, red, white and blue bunting, and speeches, too. We have records of General George Washington, on the Fourth of July, 1778, giving his soldiers an artillery salute and a double ration of rum (yes, even the drinking has a long history).

But back to the bickering, for that is what we do best (especially in an election year): There are those amongst our beloved Founding Fathers who would have wanted our celebration to be two days ago, the Second of July. John Adams was in this camp. Adams was a great leader in the fight for independence from Britain and he was our second president. It was in Philadelphia on July 2, 1776, that delegates of the thirteen colonies at the Second Continental Congress officially voted for independence, Adams amongst them. Two days later, on the Fourth, came the adoption of the Declaration of Independence that was penned by Thomas Jefferson. Adams was pretty certain July 2 would be remembered as a day of supreme importance in American history. In fact, here’s a bit of a letter he wrote back home to his wife Abigail on July 3 from Philadelphia:

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

Alas, the Fourth of July was the date written upon the document that was eventually signed by the delegates to that Second Continental Congress, and so the Fourth took on greater significance. Adams and Jefferson rarely saw eye to eye, and Adams lost his bid for a second term as president to Jefferson. But though they, too, bickered, they did share solidarity in their dream of the United States of America as a sovereign country, independent from the Crown of Great Britain. I have also loved the fact, ever since I learnt it as a little boy, that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both left this earth on the same day, Adams in Massachusetts, Jefferson in Virginia, both on the Fourth of July, 1826: the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. I like to think they both got to see some bonfires and illuminations before they went their ways… or maybe met up on the other side, where they could still bicker about the proper day to celebrate.

Image: Excerpt of a letter from John Adams in Philadelphia to his wife Abigail in Quincy, Massachusetts, July 3, 1776. With thanks to the Adams Family Archive of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

There is no holiday so quintessentially American as Independence Day, the Fourth of July, in which we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence and our separation from the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1776. The official break from England occurred two days earlier on July 2, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve independence from the Crown, but it was the Fourth of July that took on greater significance as this was the date written on the document signed by the members of that second congress, and the Fourth has been celebrated as the birthday of this great country ever since.

Our manner of celebrating hasn’t changed much over the years. The very first celebration, at Bristol, Rhode Island in 1777, featured speeches, music, red white and blue bunting, and fireworks. The following year, in 1778, General George Washington recorded giving his soldiers an artillery salute and a double ration of rum on the Fourth of July… so even drinking has a long history for our national holiday.

Here in Lake Worth, there will be a parade downtown and the annual neighborhood raft race across the lagoon, live bands at Bryant Park, and come nightfall, the City opens up the 1924 Municipal Golf Course so that folks can pile on to the greens and watch the fireworks exploding over the lagoon. It’s the same golf course that baseball legend Babe Ruth played a few rounds on back in the 1920s, so even the ground is drenched in Americana. It is always a magical evening, an entire community outdoors under the stars, folks camped here and there on blankets on the vast green lawn, the Atlantic breeze drifting in off the ocean and over the lagoon, onto the mainland. We ooh and aah as the fireworks illuminate the sky. We walk home grateful for all we have.