R. I. town boasts oldest July Fourth celebration

July 3, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

AP Photo/Steven Senne

Photo

Kris Larson, left, and Peter Lopes attach an American flag to a soccer-themed Independence Day parade float in Bristol, R.I., Monday, June 30, 2009. Bristol residents have marked July 4th every year since 1785, allowing the town to lay claim to the nation's oldest Independence Day celebration.

BRISTOL, R.I. (AP) — In July 1785, the citizens of this waterfront town assembled to heap praise on their newly minted nation and to thank God for helping them survive a fierce assault by the British during the Revolutionary War.

In July 1892, lawyer Orrin Bosworth preached that the townsfolk should be accepting of the immigrants arriving en masse: “America has no cause to fear the lover of freedom, be he American or foreign born.”

And in July 1963, judge Arthur Carrellas roared to the citizenry about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to ban Bible readings in public schools.

Prayer, speeches and other such “patriotic exercises” have marked the Fourth of July in Bristol every year since 1785 — allowing the town to lay claim to the nation’s oldest Independence Day celebration.

Over the years, the speeches — given by judges, senators, war veterans and others — have run the gamut from typical exhortations of patriotism to muscle-flexing against Communist countries to criticism of court decisions.

The patrotic exercises and annual parade that follows are institutions in Bristol, where pride in country is manifest in the red-white-and-blue center stripe that runs through the main artery of the town and in the American flags and banners that hang outside restored colonial homes.

The parade has continued uninterrupted with the exception of a few years — such as 1881, when President James Garfield was shot. Some events — like chasing a greased pig around the Common — have been abandoned, but modern-day fixtures include a concert series, orange crate derby, nighttime ball, a Miss (and Little Miss) Fourth of July pageant — even a contest recognizing the person who has traveled the farthest.

“Sometimes we think we have red, white and blue running through our bloodstream because of our commitment to the celebration,” said parade chairwoman Judy Squires, a lifelong Bristol resident and part of a committee of 110 volunteers that runs the event.