Summertime Red, White and Blues

My favorite time in Plymouth is the summer. 

The waterfront and downtown are bustling with visitors, tourists, and locals who have been shut indoors all winter.  The harbor is filled with boats. Fishermen line the jetty. Families flock to the beach where the parents enjoy a good book while their children make memories in the sand and surf. 

The restaurants are filled with smiling patrons, happy shoppers meander through the stores, and groups take in all the history, boarding the Mayflower and wandering through our 17th century village.

The hiking trails are explored, and the ponds are full of kayaks, canoes, and water skis. The parks are swollen with kids swinging, sliding, and playing baseball.  Brewster Gardens is busy with smiling couples
holding hands, some with baby carriages, some with baby plans.

Backyards send out olfactory hues of chicken and burgers and family gatherings.  Porches are filled with lemonade sippers as radios play softly in the background.  Watermelon and cantaloupe, corn on the cob, and potato salad fill picnic tables.  Remote controls are left indoors, and are replaced with gardening tools or volley balls.

It comes as no surprise that I cherish the Fourth of July.  It is my favorite holiday, as it comes during the height of summer revelry.  No gift exchanges, no greeting cards, no fancy clothes, no elaborate dinner. Just a celebration of the freedoms we’ve won and the gifts we share as a nation.

It’s a day where everyone puts down their work, gathers their family, and heads down to the waterfront to sit in the sun and catch the parade.

When the parade is over, the families wander home and enjoy barbecues, taking the time to enjoy a summer day with each other, friends, family, and neighbors.

As dusk approaches, families gather again to head down to the water, listen to the pops, and watch the fireworks display out over the harbor. Everyone cheers at the grand finale, then heads home to grill a few more dogs and finish off the last bits of potato salad, looking at the stars overhead and listening to the crickets chirping in the wood.

I must admit, for the first 30 or so years of my life, I just assumed the parade and fireworks were something that just happened.  I figured we were entitled to these celebrations.  They were something that
just always was since I can remember, and as such, were something that would always be.

Then I learned the town does not put on the parade or the fireworks.  They are funded solely by donations, and these donations are gathered by a small group known as July 4
Plymouth, Inc.  This group also organizes the events.

And to further my admissions, for several years after, I just assumed someone else would give, and I could continue to enjoy these events without a care as to where the funding came from.

Then one year, there was no parade. And I started to wake up. No parade on my favorite holiday?  How can this be!

The way I’ve heard it told, in the beginning it was simple. All the families in Plymouth just wrote a check each year, and all was good with the world.

Then, as the older generations started to thin in numbers, the younger generations weren’t so generous with donations. So small businesses started to pick up the slack.  As small businesses were able to give less and less, it became a game of waiting for someone or something to jump in and rescue the day and write the “big check”.  In recent years, the “big check” isn’t so easy to come by, and it’s back to the grass-roots of trying to get more of those $20 checks to float in.

The canning efforts at last year’s events brought in roughly $3,000. Hardly a dent in the $120,000 needed.

The thought by some this year was to hold fundraising events. Maybe people aren’t so quick these days to just write a check and send it off to limbo, but maybe if they were able to enjoy an event, they would donate that way.

There are two groups I know so far doing this.

One group is hosting comedian , with proceeds to pay for police, fire and EMS services during the parade and fireworks.

The other is , with proceeds to also benefit July 4 Plymouth.

If you love Plymouth, if you love summer, if you love freedom, and if you plan to attend the parade, fireworks, or both, please give.

Write a check to the organizers. Go to the comedy show. Buy a t-shirt. Go to the dinner. But please, do something. 

Don’t wait for everyone else to do it for you. These events are not free, but they are vital to our community well-being.