My family has been supporting our country since before it was a country.  Therefore, when I think of cultural traditions, I think of soldiers and fireworks to celebrate the birth of this great nation.

 

Soldiers

With Veteran’s Day being this week, it is a good time to honor all that have served.  Reviewing my Military Honor Wall, over 200 of Rod’s and my direct ancestors and relatives (including spouses of relatives), who served in the military, have been identified and documented.  The number continues to grow.  If certain family lines can be confirmed, the total will increase significantly.

These ancestors have served in every major conflict starting in the Revolutionary War and relatives continue to serve today.  The chart below shows the number of relatives identified as serving and when they served.

 

 

Members of the family served in various branches of the military, plus various early militia groups.  The early days of the military looked very different than it does today.  Thus, looking at the service branches over the entire 250 year period isn’t practical.  So, I decided to look at the breakdown of service by branch during World War II, since it has the greatest number of people who served.

 

 

To read about family members that served, view my Military Honor Wall.

 

4th of July celebrations

I can’t speak for all the families, but the McCracken family had big gatherings to celebrate the birth of our country.  The 4^th of July celebrations were usually held at one of the family farms.  Everyone gathered before the noon meal.  A hay rack served as a table.  Chairs, the hay rack, and blankets served as seating.

 

The Food

Food was always abundant, as it wouldn’t be a McCracken gathering without plenty of food.  We didn’t grill or have a wiener roast.  Sometimes people brought fried chicken, but I am not sure what other meats we had.  We did have numerous salads with potato salad being a favorite.  Often, we had at least two potato salads.  Of course, baked beans and chips were also on the menu.  And, if the corn cooperated and was ready at the right time, we would have corn on the cob.

In those days, people didn’t drink pop as often as today, so that was a special treat on the 4^th of July.  However, it was even better than as a regular treat as it would have been soaking in a big tub of ice, which became ice water over time.  The longer you waited to drink one, the better it was.  It was so icy cold and on a hot day, which it usually was, it was amazing.

Of course, the watermelon, straight out of the garden, soaked in the same tub of icy water.  By mid-afternoon it was delicious.  If you have never tasted watermelon fresh from the garden soaked for hours in an icy cold water, you haven’t really tasted how good watermelon can be.

The highlight of the food had to be the homemade ice cream.  Usually there were several flavors and I never tasted any of it that wasn’t delightful.

Now Energized

The visiting, conversation, and fun started from the moment people started arriving.  However, it kicked into high gear after everyone ate.  The fire crackers started popping left and right. Meanwhile, the more senior members of the family split their time between visiting and keeping and eye on the action.  I would say adults, but at least some of the younger adults were right in the middle of the action.

Often a baseball game or game of catch sparked the interest of people of all ages.  The old guys (Dad and his brothers) took it easy on us young ones.  I think it may have been a way to simmer down the fireworks a bit, but we all had fun.

 

Noise & Sparkles

Nearly everyone brought fireworks to the celebration.  And, when you have nine living siblings and their families, that adds up to a lot of fireworks.  Of course, it seems that somebody would always run low on some type of fireworks, leading to one or more fireworks runs during the day.  I remember cousins going to the fireworks stand at the Farlington Lake corner one year.  And, of course, runs to Fort Scott.

The Famous Fireworks Run

The most famous fireworks run occurred when Josh Davis was a around twenty.  He, along with my sons, ran to town for more fireworks.  Josh parked the car and they proceeded to shop and purchase fireworks.  When they walked back to the car, it wasn’t there.  Josh thought it had been stolen.  However, it wasn’t.  Josh had apparently parked on a hill and neglected to set the emergency break and the car had rolled down the hill. Fortunately, no one or nothing was harmed.  Still, he was afraid to tell his dad what happened.

In the evening, night works would be set off.  And, usually there were quite a lot of them.  When the gathering was held at the home place, which was just off the highway, people were known to stop along the highway and watch.  It was probably as good a display as any of the nearby small town displays.

No 4^th of July celebration ended in a significant fire or a major injury.  Of course, a sprayer of water was kept nearby to combat any small fire that started.  If it was very dry, extra rules were put in place by the older generation to limit the possibility of fire.  Usually, however, a minor injury or two occurred during the day.  Fortunately, and miraculously, no one ever was seriously hurt and nothing ever burnt down despite the fact that safety was not the number one concern of everybody.

 

The Day After

For kids, fun from fireworks doesn’t necessarily end on the 4^th of July even if all of them have been set off.  When I was probably 8 or so, we had the 4^th of July at our house.  The next day, sis and I went around the property and down the road collecting the cardboard that housed the fountains, cones, roman candles, and any other leftover debris.  I am sure Mom and Dad appreciated us picking up the trash.  However, it wasn’t trash to sis and me.  They were great objects to add to our collection when we played house in the outbuildings.  It is amazing what a little creativity could do with 4^th of July trash.

 

As Time Went By

The Last Big Family 4th Of July

As time went by all of us cousins got older and the big family gatherings on the 4^th of July occurred less often.  The last one I remember was in 2006 at Cindy and Lee’s house.  It wasn’t as big as the ones of days gone by, but it still had characteristics of a McCracken 4^th of July.  It even had a roman candle being pointed backwards and the thought of putting saturn missiles on their side.  Fortunately, the latter was quickly decided to not be a good idea.

 

Celebrations At The Farm

During many of the years that my boys were growing up, we visited Mom and Dad around the 4^th of July.  Our celebrations were smaller, but were great fun.  Dad would take the boys on a hay rack ride.  It wasn’t always on the 4^th, but definitely a tradition that almost always happened unless there was lots of rain.  On the 4th we would often have a wiener roast complete with brats, hotdogs, and marshmallows cooked over an open fire.  That is unless it was too dry and too risky.  Like at the big family celebrations, firecrackers went off all day long and nightworks started as soon as it was dark enough.

One year, however, it was the opposite of too dry.  Dad pulled the vehicle out to the typical picnic spot north of the barn where the pig pen had once been.  He rolled down the windows and it was so humid that the inside of the windows steamed over.  The air had so much moisture in it that it was nearly impossible to get the fireworks to light, but it was quite safe as it would have been very difficult for anything to catch fire.  The boys had a huge pack of fireworks and with Ann’s help they finally shot them all off.  Then, they ran to the house drenched in sweat.