Independence Day

July 5, 2019

 

Kathy and Carolyn

Pam

Independence Day

Celebrating the Fourth of July holiday is always something special, wherever we happen to be. But there is something extra that seems to happen along the East Coast in that the people there take it just a little more seriously. Perhaps it is the history of the place and the part they played in the formation of this great nation. It all began here, literally as the Pilgrims themselves landed in nearby Plymouth and settled the area all around there. Kathy’s father’s property was long ago part of the original settler’s property.

 

Whatever the case, the residents of this area do it up right, they celebrate Independence Day on the night of July 3^rd, because as they like to tell it, Paul Revere’s ride actually arrived in the area a day before most of the nation heard the news. I am pretty sure that is a local myth, but it makes for a good story and the people here, both residents and tourists who flock to the beach each year do it up right.

 

In the past, there have been humongous bonfires all up and down the beach, they have been mostly eradicated at least in the Marshfield/ Humarock area due to fears of starting fires in town, Smaller fire pits still line the beach and the fires start just at sunset and continue late into the night. What the real draw is the amazing fireworks displays that stretch for miles and miles up and down the beach. 

Chris and Kathy

The sheer number, size and output of the collected groups, means that there are literally thousands of people up and down the beach, each seemingly trying to outdo the other with the amount and quality of their fireworks displays. This means that for hours on end, fireworks are mostly continually being set off up and down the miles and miles of beach and that the scope of the display dwarfs that of most typical small towns, including the show that we are used to seeing in Key West.

 

Kathy, Jim, Chris and I settled in at the beach across from Jim’s house to watch all the craziness. It was a beautiful evening and the fireworks display was really incredible. The only downside is that our poor dog Jack is terrified of fireworks and with the house being so close to the beach, the loudness and frequency of the explosions had him petrified. We tried to sound proof a room for him, gave him a place to hide and turned up the radio to hopefully compensate, but he was still a quivering mess when we got home, poor thing.

 

On the actual day of July Fourth, Kathy and I joined our friend Carolyn in what has become another Humarock holiday tradition, a float down the South River on an inflatable floatie. This is about the fourth or fifth year that literally hundreds of people and their inflatable floats cruised down the river as part of a massive flotilla  It started small as an official event that grew quickly into such a massive thing that the town refused to allow the organizers to plan or promote anything official out of safety concerns.

 

Carolyn

The town killjoys could not stop it though, because while they might have been successful in the formation of an official event, they could do nothing about the hundreds and hundreds of individuals and small groups who showed up in spite of their efforts and keep the tradition alive. The town was forced to give in and actually flooded the river with boats filled with local police, the harbormaster and others, who rather than try to stop the event, handed out free lifejackets to children and others who wanted one and basically kept a sharp eye out to keep everyone safe.

 

It was a terrific and fun afternoon floating down the river. Kathy and I had large inflatable flamingos shipped to her dad’s place in anticipation of the event. We joined the myriad of all manner of inflatable floaties of all shapes and sizes. Some were incredible in that could seat up to twenty people in massive inflatable creatures but most were like ours, designed for one or two people.

  

Kathy’s friend Pam was on the water as well, on her paddle board and she kept all of us (especially me) free of getting stuck along the shore or docks that lined the river as the wind would take my large flamingo and push me towards the shore more often than not.