I was born the year America celebrated 178 years of independence as part of the baby boomer generation. Everyone was having babies, the middle class was expanding and doing quite well in the 50’s. Many women who filled in working WW2 jobs, returned to being housewives and mothers. Indeed, most families could live on a single income and one car. Certainly there were sill inequalities and injustices that would be fought in the 60’s and still continue today, and the cold war chilled the 50’s, but overall those of us with white privilege enjoyed fairly simple childhoods with many good memories.
Television was relatively new, and we certainly didn’t have the continuous feed of “breaking news”. At least we had the Fairness Doctrine from 1949 which required balanced reporting (not the info-entertainment many networks provide now) and we listened attentively to famous anchors like Walter Cronkite who brought us truthful news on black and white console TVs with antennas. We also watched shows like Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best, fun shows but not really depicting the average American family. My mother certainly didn’t wear a shirtwaist dress with pearls while cleaning and baking all day! And I don’t recall my father giving sage advice when we did something wrong like Ward did. But they provided a glimpse into what our classrooms, styles and values were at that time.
When I was only five, America added two more stars to our flag for the newly-acquired states of Hawaii and Alaska. Even though I was too young to remember the excitement of reaching 50 states, I do vaguely recall that we had a ceremony at school perhaps with the presentation of a new flag for our classroom. Patriotism was promoted and honored after WW2 and the Korean War, and 5-star General Eisenhower had been elected President in 1952 and served two terms. He was the only President who held such military credentials and the last to have served as a general. From Washington to Grant, America revered military service and many Presidents, and other elected officials have served in the military. In fact, a couple of recent Presidents even avoided serving in the military purposefully.
Here comes Uncle Sam! Cheers rang out as we paraded around to entertain our guests waving flags and sparklers. A couple of us would wear the Uncle Sam costume with the big hat and another would wear the long layered skirt playing the role of Betsy Ross sewing stars into the flag. Our Mother expected us to perform for anyone who visited, or for those homes we were invited to. Some of our guests included a few sweet older ladies who were fill-in grandmothers to us that we adopted from church and often joined us on holidays as they were unmarried and enjoyed children and a special meal. Sometimes other families would join us who had children and we always had a grand ole time.
Being proud and patriotic was a big part of my life growing up from saying the pledge of allegiance in school to putting on 4th of July skits for holiday guests and hosting picnics as an adult, and eventually marching in political parades. It’s always been one of my favorite holidays. But it has been tarnished in recent years by the policies and divisiveness our nation. Some groups have tried to portray our flag as only theirs and patriotism as relegated to a single party, not to all. The majority of us are just trying to preserve our democracy. I am no longer as proud as I once was of our country and our values, realizing that are continuously striving for a more perfect union. Yet rights are being stripped, and hard-fought victories have been turned back. We seem to be regressing rather than progressing and that is dismaying.
Maybe it’s just because I was a child, without the responsibilities of adulthood, but it felt like times were so much simpler growing up in the 50-60s, including holiday celebrations. In my early years, we didn’t have the big public firework shows that light up the skies in most large cities. There were no television shows with stars singing, and bands and fireworks to watch. Instead, often my daddy would rig up a fireworks display from our front trees and everyone would oh and awe over the brief fizzles and booms from a safe porch seat. Sparklers were a mainstay, and sometimes we had the little worm snakes that when lit, curled up on the sidewalk. It was simple, but fun and memorable.
Patriotism stems a bit from my family history. My father spent a few years in the Air Force around the time I was born which is the reason we landed in Denver. He was stationed at Lowry Air Force Base and spent some time in the UK. after the Korean War. Every patriotic holiday he would put flags out in military cemeteries and he is now at rest at Ft. Logan Cemetery among the many white-stoned rows of those who served, much like Arlington Cemetery which I have also visited. Also, my mother’s four brothers all served in World War 2 and luckily returned. And tracing my ancestry back about five generations, Stephen West on my mother’s side, served in the Revolutionary War.
Most 4th’s were filled with picnics outdoors at home or in a park, often with other people. Usually, we had simple fare like hamburgers and hot dogs. Often dessert would include a red, white and blue theme of fruit (berries) or perhaps a German Chocolate cake or cookies. One of mother’s friends made a great potato salad when we gathered with her family, who also had six kids about our age. My mother was an excellent and creative cook, and Daddy took over the charcoal grill so holidays were always filled with fond food memories.
As years passed, and big public firework displays became more of a focal point for the evening, we’d often have a picnic first and then pile in the station wagon with blankets and lawn chairs to sit and watch the sky light up with booming fireworks. On some occasions, especially in City Park, we would enjoy Sousa tunes played by bands. We learned all the good old tunes in school and could sing along with them. My mother always thought America the Beautiful made a better national anthem. I agree. The adults would sit on blankets or chairs while we waved our flags and did cartwheels on the grass. I still get goosebumps listening to the 1812 Overture as it often kicks off firework displays in such a powerful manner.
For many of my adult years, various friends and family would join me for the festivities at nearby 4 Mile Park. This is an historic park in Denver that was a stage coach stop back in the 1800’s getting its name from being four miles from the next stop near downtown Denver. It is a working farm with animals, and historic buildings that you can tour and hear the history of the families who had lived there and see their crude kitchen tools and imagine the days of hard work just to put a meal on the table. My step father especially enjoyed sitting in the green-treed area listening to the band. The park had a Revolutionary War encampment set up with tents and real canons that were set off at times sometimes giving one a startle. The role-playing men looked so hot in their wool suits but gladly answered questions about gun powder and life at that time in history. 4 Mile also had many other special exhibits like with women spinning wool, making lace and quilts, tours of the historic family house, and old-time games for the children (stilts for one), even panning for gold. For many years, it became a regular go-to for us for the 4th. Along with my mother and step dad, I took my son and my grandson over the years and many friends. We often enjoyed a meal there as they provided burgers and brats, and baked fresh cookies in the old stoves in the outdoors kitchen where the delicious smells would draw you in. Everyone also lined up to ride on the hay wagon or stagecoach to get a flavor of the old west.
Enjoying history as I do, my very favorite part of the outing to 4 Mile was the speaker, Thomas Jefferson, played by a very knowledgeable local man who did his homework on history for his role! He gave a short speech on a pertinent topic and read from the The Declaration of Independence. Afterwards, he answered questions from the crowd about current matters using his knowledge of the history of his time to weave past and present times together for relevancy. He really knew his stuff and looked the part too! And the band would play all the great tunes, some with sing-a-longs. The house nearby was decked out in flag swag to add to the ambiance of the park. And the tours were so interesting learning about lace made from hair and their crude toothbrushes that were often shared (yuck!). This outing is one of my favorite memories of the 4th spending time with family and friends and enjoying the history.
At this point in my life, with our current divisions and chipping away at our democracy, just makes harder to celebrate this holiday, America’s independence birthday. Gone are my childhood ideals, my reverence for authority and the appreciation of the values I grew up believing America once stood for. I have always valued our diversity and have even hosted people from around the globe taking pride in showing them our little slice of America here in Denver.
I am proud of the excellent education I received back in the day, as I attended integrated schools, took courses at work and in college on diverse cultures and pluralism. It’s ingrained in the fabric of my life and beliefs. It is not something that can be negated from my learned experience and from the quilt of America where I grew up having friends from other cultures, ethnicity and religious beliefs.
It is impossible for me to celebrate a country who ‘disappears’ hardworking people just because they have darker skin, who applauds much less education and research, who would take food and health benefits from the most vulnerable of us, and deny that our climate is changing when I know that temperatures in the summer growing up were much less than they are now. We had about a week of temps in the 90’s and now that is all summer. I lived those years without air conditioning in our home or in our car with roll down windows!
I love celebrating holidays and decorating for all of them and the 4th is no exception. Indeed, I want to continue celebrating our country even with its imperfections, and the people who have worked hard to make it the greatest country. But it has fallen from grace, from the envy of the world in recent years, especially this one. Until we all take being a citizen seriously as a democracy demands (we the people) and uphold its promise for all, I will reminisce about the good old days and continue to work to restore the glory of our republic for the future. I feel lucky to have enjoyed the simple celebrations of the past. Will we have a country to celebrate 250 years of independence next year?