A socially-distanced Fourth of July parade will take place in Aquinnah on Independence Day.
On Sunday morning, a huge nine-by-17-foot United States flag will be hung at an Eastville home as part of one family’s Fourth of July tradition. The flag, which has 46 stars and is thought to be 100 years old, is known inside the Rowan family as the 1910 Battleship Flag.
A descendant of Abigail Luce Smith, Christine Smith Rowan lives year-round at 178 New York avenue with her husband Chris Rowan. They are originally from Connecticut.
On the Fourth of July a couple of centuries back, the United States was founded on compromise, taking the good with the not so good.
It’s appropriate that today on the Vineyard, the fireworks, parades, flags and cookouts are served up along with traffic, crowds and chance of rain.
And for those involved with safety, service or transportation, it’s a day of continuous motion.
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.
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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