Over the years, communities have come up with unique ways of celebrating the 4th of July. Since 1818, the townsfolk of Lititz, Pennsylvania, have illuminated the local park with 7,000 candles. In the 1940s, a 2-mile-long picnic table bordered the parade route in Ontario, California. And today on the streets of Bristol, Rhode Island, red, white and blue stripes replace the yellow traffic lines.
Why do we celebrate the 4th of July?
Most people in the United States celebrate the 4th of July, but do you know exactly why the holiday is so important to our country? Imagine how you would feel if someone older than you (maybe an older sister or brother) kept telling you what to do all of the time and kept taking more and more of your allowance. That is how the colonists felt in the years leading up to 1776. England kept trying to make the colonists follow more rules and pay higher taxes. People started getting mad and began making plans to be able to make their own rules. They no longer wanted England to be able to tell them what to do, so they decided to tell England that they were becoming an independent country. (To be independent means to take care of yourself, making your own rules and providing for your own needs.)
The Congress met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and they appointed a committee (a group of people working together to do a specific job) to write a formal document that would tell England that the Americans had decided to govern themselves. The committee asked Thomas Jefferson to write a draft (first try) of the document, so he worked for days, in absolute secret, until he had written a document that he thought said everything important that the committee had discussed. On June 28, 1776, the committee met to read Jefferson’s “fair”copy (he put his best ideas together and wrote them neatly.) They revised (made some changes) the document and declared their independence on July 2, 1776. They officially adopted it (made it theirs) on July 4, 1776. That is why we call it “Independence Day.” Congress ordered that all members must sign the Declaration of Independence and they all began signing the “official” copy on August 2, 1776. In January of the next year, Congress sent signed copies to all of the states.
The Declaration of Independence is more than just a piece of paper. It is a symbol of our country’s independence and commitment to certain ideas. (A symbol is something that stands for something else. Most people can look at a certain little “swish” and know that it stands for “Nike.”) Well, the signers of the Declaration of Independence wanted the citizens of the United States to have a document that spelled out what was important to our leaders and citizens. They wanted us to be able to look at the Declaration of Independence and immediately think of the goals we should always be working for, and about the people who have fought so hard to make these ideas possible. The people who signed the Declaration risked being hanged for treason by the leaders in England. They had to be very brave to sign something that would be considered a crime! So every time we look at the Declaration of Independence, we should think about all of the effort and ideas that went into the document, and about the courage it took for these people to stand up for what they knew was right – independence!
by Kim Moon
RELAY RACES
THREE-LEGGED RACE
No field day is complete without this classic race. But don’t let the simple rules fool you; sharing a leg is no mean feat. Each team breaks into pairs (matching an adult with a child keeps things fair and interesting). Using a bandanna, each pair ties one partner’s right ankle to the other’s left ankle. When the whistle blows, all of the pairs, assembled side by side at the starting line, race to the finish line. The first team whose pairs all cross the finish line wins.
This fast-paced race lets winners go out with a real bang. Before the start, each team assembles in single file with the first player in each line holding a balloon. When the whistle blows, each lead player passes the balloon between her legs to the next person in line. Each recipient, in turn, passes the balloon overhead to the teammate directly behind her. The balloon is passed alternately between players’ legs and over players’ heads all the way down the line. When the last person receives the balloon, he or she races to the front of the line and the balloon pass resumes. The relay continues in this fashion until one of the original players regains position at the front of her line and pops the team balloon.
Picnic Food
On the 4th of July, feasts have always been the order of the day. Early on, they were sponsored by political hopefuls or local churches. By the mid-1800s, families everywhere would pack lunches and gather at parks for community picnics. Perhaps the most sensational holiday spread on record is the Ontario, California, 1956 All States Picnic, when more than 100,000 people from across the country lunched together in the shade of the town’s peppertrees. The event even spawned a six-legged mascot: a fork-and-knife-wielding caricature named Jasper the Picnic Ant.
If your family is celebrating the holiday with friends and neighbors, the best way to feed the crowd is by organizing a potluck. Fresh produce is plentiful this time of year, and everyone’s likely to have a favorite summer salad or casserole to share. You may want to divide the guest list into three groups, assigning salads and casseroles to one, desserts to another and beverages to the third. If a grill or barbecue pit is available at the picnic site, suggest that each family bring its own chicken, hamburgers or hot dogs, as well.
You’ll also need condiments, napkins, serving spoons, disposable plates, eating utensils, trash bags and charcoal briquettes. And to keep an ample supply of beverages cold and accessible, you can provide a trash can filled with ice.
For inspiration, we offer the following menu and recipes. Many of them are classics that the original Fourth of July celebrants were apt to have packed in their picnic baskets. And we’ve added a few new twists, too: an orange sauce to spread on barbecued chicken; a bacon topping to sprinkle on potato salad; and maple-flavored whipped cream to crown a truly red, white and blue dessert.
New Potato Salad
If the choice were Ben Franklin’s, it’s likely the eagle would have been disqualified from its prestigious role as our national bird. Franklin considered the eagle’s habit of stealing food from smaller birds a sign of bad character. The turkey, he contended, was more respectable and, being native to America, much more deserving. With that in mind, we dedicate the following recipe (topped with turkey bacon) to the runner-up.
8 to 10 slices of turkey bacon
5 lbs. new potatoes
6 hard-boiled eggs
4 stalks of celery
5 or 6 radishes
2 tbsp. white vinegar
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp. prepared Dijon mustard
3 scallions
In a frying pan, cook the turkey bacon strips until crisp and let drain on a paper towel. When cool, crumble the bacon into bits and store for later. Scrub the new potatoes and place in a large pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Cook just until tender enough to pierce with a fork (about 20 minutes). Drain and immediately plunge the potatoes into cold water to prevent further cooking. When they are cool enough to handle, peel and cut the potatoes and put into a large bowl.
Chop the hard-boiled eggs and add to the potatoes. Wash and chop the celery. Scrub the radishes and slice very thin. Add the vegetables to the potatoes and eggs.
In a separate mixing bowl, whip the vinegar, mayonnaise and mustard together, and fold into the other ingredients until they are evenly coated. Keep the salad chilled until it’s time to eat. Just before serving, sprinkle the crumbled turkey bacon on top and garnish with snipped scallions or radish rosettes. Serves 10 to 12.
Red? White&Blueberry Freeze Pops
Sweet, cool and healthy, these fruity, frozen pops are great pick-me-ups between games.
10 5-oz. plastic or paper cups
1 qt. raspberry juice
10 Popsicle sticks
1 pt. frozen vanilla yogurt
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
Assemble the cups on a cookie tray. Pour an inch of raspberry juice into each cup, then place the tray in the freezer. When the juice is partially frozen, set a Popsicle stick in the center of each cup and let the juice freeze solid. Next, pour 1 cup of water into a blender. Add 4 large scoops of frozen vanilla yogurt and blend until smooth. Pour an inch of the vanilla mix on top of the frozen raspberry juice layer in each cup and freeze again. Once the vanilla layer sets, blend 1 cup of water, the blueberries and a large scoop of frozen vanilla yogurt. Spoon the blueberry mix into the cups. Freeze overnight. To serve, dip each cup into a bowl of warm water for an instant. The pop should slide out easily. Serves 10.