In these days of polarized politics, Wednesday's July Fourth events around metro Atlanta seemed like a giant community meeting on American values, patriotism and traditions. And you know what? People agreed they liked them all.
From the Marietta parade to the Henry County festival, little of the chatter had to do with the recent health care ruling or the upcoming election. People seemed as happy as, well, 6-year-old Daniel Teske watching the Marietta parade.
Daniel leaped out of his seat again and again, marveling at the colorful vehicles and floats going by. When the fire trucks passed, he pumped his fist in the air and called out, "Honk the horn! Honk the horn!" And when the drivers did, he asked them to do it again. When he saw a green military jeep, he pointed at it like he wanted one of his own. And he just couldn't collect enough flags from veterans handing them to the crowds lining Roswell Road.
July Fourth is a day for such unabashed appreciation. After all, what is it but a big birthday party for the country where everyone's invited?
It was a day for traditions, large and small. Not far from Daniel's family sat Lois Morrison and her daughter, Nancy. Lois just had her 92nd birthday and the two women have been coming to this parade since Nancy was a Brownie, often sitting in the same spot.
"I just kind of enjoy the whole thing," said Lois, waving a little flag she's had for 10 years. "It's made in America and that means a lot to me."
She looked forward to some of the quirkier local traditions, such as the group that performs synchronized dance moves with folding chairs or the librarians who push a dozen book carts in formation. When she greeted a police officer from her neighborhood, calling him by name, it seemed a moment straight out of the old "Andy Griffith Show."
People celebrated in so many ways, though often with friends and family. In Atlanta, some people went for a morning run - along with about 60,000 others - in the Peachtree Road Race. And as the sun burned off the morning haze, they hoped the great heat of recent days would hold off till they crested Cardiac Hill.
Some people may have only had a passing thought about the nation's founding, while others were all-in participants from the crack of dawn on. In the Chamblee subdivision of Huntley Hills, the kids had their own parade where they festooned their bikes with all manner of red, white and blue.
Eleven-year-old Sharon Huckabee wrapped her blue Malibu bike in streamers, bows and flags. But the crowning glory was a big red star (a pinata left over from her brother's birthday party) that she glued to her bike helmet. Riding in the parade, she said she thought about the patriotic meaning of the day.
The rest of the day was dedicated to "fun and hanging out with my friends."
The furnace-like heat was back by the afternoon, when the Huntley Hills crowd moved their celebration to the neighborhood pool. There, they found any excuse to hit the water. The men and teenage boys played a water sport they called greased watermelon football, and kids jumped in the pool again and again in contests to find coins and drinks tossed by their parents. The adults jumped in for cans of beer.
Over in Henry County, the festival on the Nash Farm Park emphasized the meaning of the day, as actors dressed in Colonial costumes mixed with people munching on funnel cakes, burgers and fried Oreos and Snickers bars.
Aaron Penton beamed with pride when his 8-year-old daughter, Amariah, met Betsy Ross and remembered she had sewn the American flag. But the big thrill, Amariah said, was going down the inflatable water slide.
About the Author
