Last Saturday we went to a 4th of July get-together at our friends' home in the town of Glover, VT (also home of Parker Pie!) about 20 miles north of Hardwick. A few of us sat around and chatted while others (including most of the kids) went for a swim at Lake Parker. After that, things proceeded as you might expect. A little grilling, a little too much eating, a few sparklers lit as the sun began to fade and then the incessant questioning from the kids as they took breaks from running around: "When will they start?"
You see, our friends' front yard is the perfect location to view two nice-sized fireworks displays (as well as a couple of stray personal displays.) Of course, your're probably saying to yourself, "last I checked, Saturday was the 6th, not the 4th." I'll do my best to shed some light on that (pun intended), but bear in mind that my information may be suspect given that I'm not native. It seems that one of the peculiarities of Vermont (though perhaps other parts of the country suffer this strange tradition?) is that 4th of July fireworks in many towns are set off on the 5th or 6th, and not just when the 4th falls on a weekday. Even if the 4th fell on a Saturday, the fireworks wouldn't necessarily occur that day in a lot of places.
I asked around of people who had been in Vermont at least one generation and the prevailing opinion was that small towns had their fireworks not on the 4th so that local people (mostly farmers and other small town folk) could trek over to the big city (Burlington, VT) fireworks and still attend their own celebrations. Sounds plausible and I'd like to believe it, but whatever the reason, I'm happy to have the chance to see more than one display a year.
What about where you are? Are fireworks on the 4th? If you know why Vermont has this tradition, I'd love to know that also. Just drop me an email.
-jason