Well, it’s 11:00 p.m. on July 4th, and for the third night in a row there are teeth-rattling fireworks being set off in our neighborhood … although tonight’s “show” isn’t quite as bad as the last two evenings have been. Still, it’s irritating enough that rather than sit here an be bothered by it, I want to think about what made the rest of the day so fun- and also so moving.
As we do almost every year, Kathy and I attended Racine’s Fourth of July Parade (this year’s was the 80th) and despite all of its rough edges (especially all of the pauses which seemed to be longer and more numerous than ever before) there were enough high points to make us very glad we were there. There is something especially beautiful about those moments when a veterans float will go by and everyone on both sides of the parade route will be on their feet, cheering. With all that painfully divides us as a nation right now, there is something so inspiring about anything that draws us together – even for a few moments.
What was most moving to me among the veterans floats was the one that carried a number of actual World War Two veterans – and the sight of them touched off the biggest ovation of the entire parade. One reason, of course, is that the number of WWII veterans who are still with us is dwindling by the day – and someday in the all-too-near future, they will all be gone. So any chance to pay tribute to them is a special moment indeed. Of course, our veterans needs more than a few seconds of heartfelt applause and cheers on one or two special days during the years; they need and deserve our country’s ongoing support.
This was the 80th Fourth of July Parade in Racine, and they actual trotted out a couple of floats from past parades (including one from 31 years ago!) to acknowledge the milestone. It was also wonderful to have Racine’s beautiful historic calliope heard again. This charming instrument, built in 1938, has been a part of this parade for more than three quarters of a century – but last year, it rode by in silence, unplayed ….. in tribute to Jerry Buck, the man who played it for 21 consecutive parades …. who had died a few months earlier. (Pictured below: Jerry Buck.)
The calliope was back this year, but this time played by Racine’s own Michael Becker …. and it was so nice to hear its dulcet tones again – and to see Michael’s beaming face as he played. What a joy! (Pictured below: Michael Becker. Photo taken by Carl Matteson for Belle City Magazine.)
One more nostalgic nod to the past occurred early in the parade, although at the time I had no idea what it was about. About a dozen people walked behind a banner for the Boys of 76 Drum & Bugle Corps- some carrying pennants- but there wasn’t a single drum or bugle to be seen or heard – although there was one resplendently-dressed drum major marching amidst them. It was such a curious sight. Only later did I learn that these were alumni of the now-defunct Boys of 76 that disbanded more than a decade ago. This summer marks the group’s 100th anniversary, and this was the group’s way of marking their centennial. I really wish I would have known that at the time. The sight of this drum & bugle corps with no instruments whatsoever was an almost comical sight at the time. But with context, I’m now touched and maybe even haunted by this bittersweet image of our own past slipping through our fingers.
It’s funny to think about how old-fashioned parades are, whether in the relative simplicity of something like Racine’s parade (or the much smaller and thoroughly charming parade in the village of Somers) …. or amidst the razzle dazzle of parades in NYC and LA, where almost limitless amounts of money are brought to bear. Parades take us back to those much simpler days when we didn’t walk around with the whole world at our fingertips, thanks to the smartphone. It was a world where one had to seek out adventure and entertainment; you didn’t find it on your own personal, private screen. But once you were there, you just sat and waited to take it in as it happened – never knowing for sure just what new wonder was coming next.
Parades are also such a joy because it’s a chance to connect with people important to us. For Kathy and me, our Racine parade experience typically begins in front of Evangelical United Methodist Church, where we get to see most of her family and other close family friends…. although this year, some of those folks were absent for the first time in twenty years or more, and we missed them. From there, we proceeded a a block further north to join friends from the Racine Theater Guild – and then moved three blocks to the south to join us with Holy Communion friends. It might seem like a needlessly complicated migration, but I think for us it’s a way to luxuriate in the various friendships that enrich our lives.
I’m glad that our Fourth of July typically begins with the nostalgia of the Racine parade – and ends for me with the warm, familiar tradition of the Kenosha Pops Concert Band’s 4th of July concert down in Wolfenbuttel Park, just ahead of the city’s enormous fireworks display. If there’s anything that takes us back into our own history like a parade, it’s a band concert of patriotic music.
(Pictured below: Kenosha Pops director Craig Gall deputizes on the tubular bells for John Phillip Sousa’s Liberty Bell March, because we were missing a couple of our regular percussionists. Assistant Director Garrett Kornman was on the podium to conduct this particular piece.)
Of course, as with the parade, there are all kinds of jarring reminders of how different the world is today. Through much of our concert, there was an almost continuous riot of background noise from fireworks being set off all around us- even during the playing of Taps at the conclusion of our Arms Forces Tribute. There’s always been a bit of that, but the encroachment is getting more acute every year. Of course, the vast majority of those people are not being consciously disrespectful. They are simply paying no attention to us whatsoever (there’s a difference) and just going about the business of having their own Fourth of July fun- as our music plays on in the distant background. What makes me sad about that is that our concert is designed to bring the central meaning of Independence Day into focus- a nice reminder that this day isn’t just about beer and brats and shooting off firecrackers. It is about our country, its rich history, and its vast potential- and I wish that more people at the lakefront would take a few minutes to embrace that and be moved by that.
One other way in which one senses the passage of time is when the band has its Armed Forces Tribute towards the end of the concert. The band plays the official marches of each of the five divisions of the armed forces- and any veterans in the audience are invited to stand as their particular ‘song’ is played. I can remember our first concerts in Wolfenbuttal Park (at least 20 years ago) when I look out into the audience and see as many as a dozen people standing (especially for the U.S. Army). But last night, there were just 1 or 2 veterans for a couple of marches – and none at all for at least one of them. It’s a stark reminder of the drastic shift that has occurred over the last few years- and how military service now involves only a tiny percentage of our populace…. as well as the inescapable fact that so many veterans of the past are slipping away from us. But paradoxically, the dwindling number of veterans at this concert who stand to be recognized does not make this tribute seem obsolete- but rather something all the more important and precious.
Still, for all of those twinges of melancholy, it was a joyous and exuberant concert – and the fact that the middle school Continental Recreation Band were part of the proceedings was an exciting reminder that for as much as the world seems to be tilting in crazy directions, good old fashioned Band Music isn’t going anywhere! And there is something very touching when you have 8th graders and 80-year-olds (and every age in between) playing together in Variations on “America.”
I’m not sure anything embodies the Fourth of July better than the lively yet uneasy mix of Old and New that this holiday seems to be about. There is the backdrop of Tradition and History, to which most of us gravitate and in which we find purpose and inspiration. But that very backdrop, strangely enough, also makes us even more acutely aware of the modern attitudes that seem either oblivious to that Tradition- or even contemptuous of it. It is really easy to see all of that in simplistic terms – pining for the simpler days of yesteryear when (supposedly) we all believed the same thing and worked for the same goals. The real story is ever so much more complicated than that- and maybe that’s why it’s just as well that the Fourth of July is as complicated a day as it is. Because we are a complicated nation. We always have been …. from our very earliest days. (The more you study our Founding Fathers and the tumultuous gestation of our nation, the clearer this becomes.) And I dare say we always will be. And if America really is a Great Nation (whatever you think that even means) it has as much to do with our complexity as anything else – and our willingness to embrace our complexity . . . messy (and noisy) though it may sometimes be.
(Pictured below: a selfie I took as I was singing during the concert. I led a patriotic sing along and also sang God Bless America and Battle Hymn of the Republic.)
