Oysterville’s Fourth of July Parade, c. 1900

     In Oysterville, the Fourth of July is a time when “everybody is down.”  That expression has nothing to do with mood.  It is a carry-over from the days before roads when most visitors to Oysterville came by boat down the river from Portland. Conversely, many of us still speak of going “up to Portland” even though it is south of us.
     In the 1850s, lacking the fireworks choices of today, the men built a bonfire which, according to James G. Swan in his book, The Northwest Coast, “was answered by everyone who had a gun and powder blazing away.”  When the speeches and feasting (and probably a good bit of imbibing) were over, they “made a tremendous big blaze” on a nearby hill, which “after burning all night and part of the next day, finally set fire to the forest, which continued to burn for several months, till the winter rains finally extinguished it.”  We just don’t have many celebrations like that anymore – thank goodness!
     In my mother’s day, there was a parade through town to the picnic grounds near Skating Lake.  Following the obligatory speeches and community picnic, there were all sorts of races for children and adults with monetary prizes (usually fifty cents for first place) awarded.  By the time of my childhood, the celebration had morphed into individual family gatherings, sometimes with a community picnic at the schoolhouse and sometimes with fireworks down at the bay.
   And that’s pretty much the way it still is, the difference being that it’s now one of the few occasions during the year when almost every house in town is occupied.  Everybody is down; the village is “full” and it feels just right.  Hooray for the Glorious Fourth!