Happy Birthday America

On this day I am celebrating America's Birthday with a girl from my Parlin Junior High School 9th grade homeroom. To share in the spirit of America with you, I'm posting my original Fourth of July article from 2006.

You may remember this one. I'm hoping it will rekindle many of your heartfelt memories from the elaborate Fourth of July celebrations we so enjoyed growing up in Everett.

"What was it like where you grew up?"

Ask me that question, and I'm tellin ya, you better put the kettle on cuz we're gonna be havin the gab of the century - you and me.

Allow me to direct your attention towards a small industrial community to the north of Boston. Seen from above, Everett looks like a clustered network of crowded neighborhoods. Zooming in reveals dozens of oil tanks, factories, and a large power plant that overshadows these narrow city streets filled with two-family houses and heavy traffic.

The city of Everett houses a multitude of diversity. It stands as a true representative of that melting pot we so lovingly refer to as, "America." These proud and free people collectively chant this song.

"We're from Everett,
And no one could be prouder,
And if you cannot hear us,
We'll yell a little louder."

Some sort of magic may indeed exist within this chant because Everett High School carries an age-old tradition of winning their Thanksgiving Day football games.

At first glance, you may regard this municipality as if it were no different than all of the other bustling little communities that dot the surrounding landscape of any major American metropolis. You couldn't be more wrong if you tried. Everett is the most unique city in all of America. Let me tell you why.

Like every other municipality across this great nation today, Everett suffers from what appears to be financial recession, social decay, and apathy. Those of us who recall her better days, remember a time when our fair city was the most industrial and economically successful community east of the Mississippi, second only to Pittsburgh.

It was during such times that we celebrated the Fourth of July with such enthusiasm that you'd think we had authored the "Declaration of Independence" ourselves. Damn, we were proud!

When I was a little boy, my heart pounded with such excitement on the night before the Fourth of July that it was nearly impossible for me to fall asleep. I was just as excited as if it were Christmas Eve. And it may as well have been. The Fourth of July in Everett was an experience to remember.

My earliest recollection of a Fourth of July in Everett takes place when I was still small enough to be pushed around in a stroller by my big sister, Julie. She, and Martha Johnson, wheeled me to the top of the hill on Arlington Street. Just after we rounded the corner onto Foster, we came face to face with a real live clown. I kid you not. I remember it so vividly even to this day.

He knelt down before me, smiled, and handed me a lollipop. I honestly don’t remember if he said anything or not. You must remember, I couldn’t have been any older than three at the time. So that had to be somewhere in the vicinity of about 54 years ago. And it’s not really the time passage that clouds the memory so much as it is that I was so very young.

And although I do not recall the flavor or color of that lollipop, I do remember that it had a looped rope handle. And I also remember Julie telling my mother about the incident when we got back home after the parade that afternoon. I remember her telling my mother that the clown had explained that he was late joining up with the parade.

That is all that I remember about that day. For the most part, my memories of celebrating the Fourth of July in Everett take place a few years later when I was big enough to ride a two-wheeler and play stickball in the middle of the street.

What I do recall is how we'd scurry around the house in such a chaotic dither on the morning of the Fourth of July. We acted as if we were getting ready to go off to school. We fought over bathroom privileges, downed our Cheerios in seconds flat, and headed out the door while still in the process of getting dressed. Everett waits for no man - believe you me. You've got to get up and get out early in the morning on the Fourth of July in Everett.

The first order of the day was to get up to the local playground in your neighborhood. Nothing equals the privilege of standing first in line for a free Hoodsie - let me tell ya. Yep, you heard that right. At every playground in every neighborhood, they gave out free Hoodsies to all the kids.

After you got your Hoodsie, you circled back around to the end of the line for another one. By the time you scored about a half-dozen of them, the supplies ran out. Since the Horace Mann school ground was one of the smaller playgrounds, we'd go through the cycle rather quickly. Not to worry, we still had plenty of time to book it on down to Glendale Park to cash in on that windfall, as well. By morning's end it was not unheard of to score up to a dozen Hoodsies if you played your cards right.

Once they gave out all the Hoodsies, it was time to regroup and head up to Broadway. You're going to want to lay claim to a desirable piece of the sidewalk for a good view of this thrilling parade. In a crowded city like Everett, it took strategic know how and planning to get a good spot for the parade.

The sidewalks up near the Post Office across from the Parlin library were an ideal location because that's where the parade started. Once the parade passed you by you could get back to your car and beat the heavy traffic back home without getting caught up in all the chaos.

Because it was only walking distance from our neighborhood, we always stood out in front of the Everett Credit Union to watch the parade. Not taking your car eliminated getting caught up in all the traffic. The down side was standing out there in that blaring hot sun. The up side was all the fun of walking back home having a gab with all of your neighbors and friends.

Back in its hay day, the Everett Fourth of July parade was something to behold. Beautifully decorated floats, several Drum and Bugle corps, clowns throwing lollipops, and girls twirling batons held us spellbound for almost two full hours.

What was so great back then was that you knew the people marching in the parade. They were your neighbors. We knew the Chief of Police, all of the police officers, the Fire Chief, all of the firemen, the members of the city council, and even the soldiers in the National Guard. These were people who lived amongst us. If they worked in Everett - they lived in Everett. That's what made Everett such a community-oriented municipality.

Once the parade got over, we headed back down to Glendale Park for all the extra fun activities. The girls proudly displayed their artistic talents during the doll carriage promenade. These doll carriages were extravagantly decorated with flowers, bows, pompons, and American flag banners.

They also held a competition for the most lavishly decorated bike. Man, you should have seen some of these bikes. Complete with banners, flags, streamers, and blinking lights they paraded around the park to the cheers of all the onlookers.

And there were three-legged races, egg catching contests, and all kinds of activities to get caught up in. On the other side of Elm Street behind the "Rec," the fireman held a water shooting competition with the fire hoses from their fire engines. We sat in awe as the firemen demonstrated and explained every aspect of all the different fire fighting equipment. After that, they let us climb on board to get a first hand feel of what it was like to sit up on top of a real fire engine. What an honest to goodness thrill that was for a little kid.

For the remainder of the afternoon, you could picnic right there on the lawns of Glendale Park with your family listening to the musical genius of Al Vega as his band serenaded the afternoon away. If you took a walk anywhere in the city that afternoon you'd smell the steaks, hot dogs, and hamburgers grilling in everyone's back yard.

My favorite part about backyard cookouts back then was getting those charcoals to light. After dowsing those coals with lighter fluid, you're in for the fireball of the century when you threw that lit match on top. I'll bet that more eyebrows, mustaches, and nose hairs were lost on the Fourth of July than any other day of the year.

When the night grew dark, Everett unleashed a display of fireworks that absolutely took the crowd by storm. You could hear the oohs and ahs after each heart pounding blast. I will never forget that one sparkling display that illuminated two opposing cannons firing at one another. At the end was a shower of sparks that shot up into the heavens. And then, Old Glory exploded in the sky above us. It took my breath away.

Okay, so what's the big deal? It's true that hundreds of cities all over the country held wonderful Fourth of July celebrations. What was so different about Everett was the spirit of its people. These people are so unique that to share anything at all with them will enrich your character beyond your wildest dreams.

If that sounds like a lot of empty rhetoric to you, then let me tell you all about these people. You must understand. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Everett stands in the historic shadow of the birth of our nation. It's only an hour's drive from where the Pilgrim's first set foot on this promised Land.

They became the guests of the "People of the First Light," better known as the "Wampanoag Indians." By the gracious generosity of Chief Massasoit does our brave nation stand strong today. If George Washington is the father of our country, then Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoags is truly the Grandfather of our nation.

Where I grew up is not very far from Gray's Rope-Walk where a common citizen got into a fistfight with a British soldier during his off-duty hours. News of that altercation spread throughout the common citizenry like wild fire. Because the people were so enraged over that incident, tempers flared.

A few days later, another incident on King Street (now State Street) in front of the Customs House between unarmed citizens and heavily armed British soldiers erupted into what eventually became known as the infamous Boston Massacre.

Many such incidences between the common folk and this well-trained, heavily armed militia in and around the Greater Boston area culminated into the most famous social-political revolution in world history. All of the things you learned in school about the birth of our nation happened right here.

During my childhood, I got to look out that belfry in the Old North Church where Robert Newman hung two lanterns to tell the rebels that the British forces were approaching by sea. I journeyed along that same route Paul Revere traveled by horseback after seeing those lanterns to warn the town's people that the Red Coats were coming. And I walked across that rude bridge that arched the flood in Lexington where the embattled farmers stood on the wee hours of that fateful morning on April 19th in 1775, when they fired the shot heard round the world.

Just beyond the skyline of my hometown, you can see that tall monument that marks the spot where Colonel William Prescott shouted, "Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes!" That monument commemorates the bloodiest battle ever fought during the American Revolution. And even though we lost that battle, British General Clinton wrote in his diary, "A few more such victories will surely put an end to British dominion in America." Every kid I grew up with has marched up those 292 steps of the Bunker Hill Monument to look out over the wonders of Bean Town.

Docked at the wharf right down the street from the Bunker Hill Monument, is the famous American frigate, the "U.S.S. Constitution." After demolishing the British frigate, the "HMS Guerriere," off the coast of Nova Scotia on August 19, 1812, her crew nicknamed her, "Old Ironsides" because the enemy's cannonballs bounced harmlessly off of her hull. Old Ironsides is the oldest battleship still in the commission of The United States Navy.

All of these historic wonders happened a mere stone's throw from my hometown. You do not grow up in the shadow of such gallantry without it having monumental influence on your character. Everett is rich in talent and genius.

Amongst the many noble characters born here was Vannevar Bush. This celebrated scientist co-invented a gaseous rectifier tube. He later co-founded the Raytheon Corporation to supply the Unites States government with vacuum tubes and thermostats. His well referenced article entitled, "As We May Think" for the July issue of the Atlantic Monthly in 1945 is still sought after and respected to this day.

In that article he covered such topics as using a hypertext language to organize and retrieve information. He was an important contributor to the evolution of our modern computer technology. This Everett native was born in 1890. Can you imagine that? Besides being the one time director of AT&T, the many distinguished credits to his name would humble Einstein himself. Check it out if you don't believe me.

Let me tell you something else about the people where I grew up. Don't ever think that you're so big for your britches that you can just walk in amongst them and start throwing your weight around. I don't care how big or how bad you think you are. These people will stand toe to toe and go a few rounds with any foe - any where. You want a pick a fight with somebody from Everett? All you need to do is name a time and place. They will show up. Trust me. They will be there.

You just try to hand these people the dirty end of the stick and you'll more than hear about it. They'll have you drawn and quartered so fast it will make your head spin. You think I'm kidding? Try to park in the spot where they just shoveled out the snow sometime and then tell me what you think.

These people are every color of the rainbow, speak every language on the planet, and have eaten just about everything that has a name. They fuss, they fight, they rant, and they rave over every injustice. Inspired by the same gumption that stirred the people to overthrow the British Empire, they stand their ground.

Ask any one of the many politicians that have suffered the Everett voter's wrath over the years. They'll tell ya. These people will tell you what they think right to your face regardless of your station in life or the possibility of repercussions. They are Yankees through and through.

They've served their country bravely and honorably in every war and every conflict throughout the history of our land. They stand their ground so firmly that they are the only city in the entire United States of America with a bicameral (two-house) city government. Did you hear that? No other community in all of America can lay claim to such a distinction.

Over the years, they have spread out far and wide across the face of this planet. Into every new community, every new country, and onto every new continent they bring along that fighting Yankee spirit. A word to the wise - roll up your sleeve if you're going to mouth off to one of these people. You're in for the long haul if you do.

And let me tell you something else. There is a thread that runs so true through their hearts that cannot be denied. They may bicker and argue and fuss and fight about every little detail, but should you ever open your heart to these people, you'll find a loyal friend for life unparalleled by any other people on the face of this planet.

Damn, I'm proud of these people. It is an honor to be one of them. I was born and raised in Everett, Massachusetts. And that's exactly what gives me the backbone to throw back my shoulders and proudly shout, "I'm From Everett!"

Happy Birthday America!