I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy,
A Yankee Doodle, do or die,
a real live nephew of my Uncle Sam,
Born on the 4th of July!
“The Yankee Doodle Boy,” also well known as
“(I’m a) Yankee Doodle Dandy” by George M. Cohan
The 4th of July Main Street Parade and patriotic festivities have been the main special event attraction since the end of WWII. It’s the largest single day summer celebration in Red River, second only in attendance to the Memorial Day Motorcycle Rally. The 4th draws… well, nobody has tried to count the number of folks that line streets to watch the spectacle of neighbors entertaining neighbors in small town Main Street America style.
Independence Day has always been a big deal since the founding days of Red River City in 1895. Pictures of the town in the early days show buildings festooned with red, white and blue bunting and banners, as well as a line of flags stretching above the main road near the bridge over Bitter Creek. Photos from the 1920s show a baseball game with locals playing a visiting team from a neighboring town.
There are also pics of festivities on the steps of the school house on High Street, with patriotic speakers and youngsters in Our Gang costumes standing beneath Old Glory waving from the flag pole.
Picnics, fishing derbies and foot races were common during the celebration of the birth of the nation. In the modern era, activities such as old-fashioned games like three legged races, egg tosses and sack races on the Red River Community House lawn, as well as bobbing for apples, followed the parade. There were even Miss Red River and Little Miss Red River pageants.
Watermelon feeds, a tug-of-war across the Red River with the losers soaked in the chilly waters, concerts in the park, and rubber duck races for charity have entertained visitors on the most special day in the valley.
This year, 2019, everyone is invited after the parade to join in the fun at Brandenburg Park for a picnic including hot dogs, old-fashioned soda, popcorn, and a DJ.
Remember those old-fashioned games on the lawn of the Community House? They start following the conclusion of the parade.
There are no fireworks to light up the night sky over Red River. Fireworks in the middle of the forest during summer, spring and fall… not a great idea and also illegal within town limits, as well as the surrounding Carson Forest. Nobody wants to burn the town down, right?
“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.” –William Faulkner
Practicing freedom isn’t easy, but it wasn’t supposed to be easy.