When the clock on the Old Whaling Church strikes 5 p.m. on the Fourth of July, you can bet the annual Edgartown Fourth of July parade will be underway.

No matter that longtime grand marshal Fred B. Morgan Jr., a stickler for punctuality, has passed the torch to Joseph E. Sollitto Jr. Not much will change, least of all the prompt start.

The Gazette turns back the page in this week’s edition as it revisits the Harris Poll, a first-of-its-kind scientific public opinion survey the results of which were published by this newspaper twenty-five years ago. What follows is an editorial from July 4, 1987, the year the Harris Poll survey was taken.

Aquinnah celebrates the Fourth of July with its 10th annual children’s parade. Floats, antique cars, face painting, music, buried treasure on the beach and town officials will all be part of the festivities.

The parade starts at 11 a.m. sharp at the top of Old South Road.

It's time to pull out the red, white and blue and join with other Islanders for Independence Day festivities. Edgartown plays host tomorrow to a Fourth of July parade and
fireworks display. If you want to join the holiday fun, read along for details about the day.

Even though the sun took the Fourth of July off, people
across the Island found plenty of ways to celebrate Independence
Day.

The sharp breezes and daunting sky kept folks off the beach.
A survey of Norton Point Beach at midday showed only a handful
of people, most of whom traded sunblock for sweaters. In fact,
more state police than vacationers braved that territory.

The weather and slow morning nudged people toward their
favorite restaurants for a leisurely breakfast.

This Fourth of July parade was clearly the biggest. Last
night's fireworks were vivid and colorful. And those words can
also be used to describe a parade that was so large that it took nearly
two hours to run its course.

Edgartown fire chief Tony Bettencourt said: "It was absolutely
the largest. It was incredible."

On the day that America celebrated its independence, and that
Edgartown held the big parade, another kind of parade streamed through
the tiny avenues of the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs; a tetherball
tournament entertained employees of the Vineyard Yacht Club; and, by
night, post-fireworks revelers flocked to Circuit avenue, sidestepping
the blobs of melted ice cream left behind by toddlers before their
bedtime.

It was a warm and sunny weekend, until rains came Monday afternoon;
and the Vineyard took full advantage.

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A family walks along Memorial Wharf eating ice cream, the children wearing Martha's Vineyard sweatshirts, one red, one white and two blue. A stranger stops to help an elderly woman attempting to hang the stars and stripes from her flagpole. Down the street a man, surrounded by three children drawing vivid landscapes in sidewalk chalk, cleans the grime from his grill.

The Fourth of July is almost here and in every storefront, hanging flower basket and living room window Independence Day is visible.

Signs of the times are everywhere.