4th of July--go away? stay home? what do you do? (Boston: transplants, neighborhood)

[in_newengland]

In days past, it seemed that most people just stayed home and had a backyard cookout after they went to the town parade. Now I think more people take off and go somewhere. Where do they go?

The town parades have diminished and few even remain. I remember great parades in East Longmeadow and in Wakefield but as towns had less and less money to spend, the parades became of lower quality--or so it seemed to a lot of us.

I know I have to see fireworks or it's not the 4th of July. A parade would be nice but I don't know of any. Maybe a cookout but definitely I'm not taking a road trip to anywhere due to all the traffic.

What do you do on the 4th? Do you have a tradition? Do you stay around or go away? I'm curious.

[goyguy]

"It depends." Sometimes it's to a backyard cookout hosted by one pair/set of friends or another, other times it's not even that. But fireworks? Yeah, definitely a must. Luckily for me there are good vantage points close by so I can watch the multitudes stuck in traffic or pouring into the subway and just laugh.

To this day there's an Independence Day parade, popular too, in the Midwestern suburb where I grew up. But I don't miss that very much. With Memorial Day, the Caribbean and HONK! festivals, etc there are more than enough opportunities to watch dressed-up people strolling down a blocked thoroughfare.

[magicshark]

We hit the fireworks and pots and pans midnight parade in Greenville NH. We only live maybe 15~20 minutes over the Massachusetts border. Then we hit the Chelmsford parade in the morning and go to a family cook out in Chelmsford. My sister has had this party for at least 15 years now. I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday.

[Parsec]

I think most of the people you see traveling over July 4th are transplants going to visit family in CT/MA/NY. It might just be me, but it seems like most people just stay home or drive a couple towns over to see friends/family.

[495neighbor]

Acton has fireworks from Nara Park. I can see the show from where I live. Usually if there is a group of us around, we go to the end of the street and watch.

[Beachcomber4]

The Cape sinks 6 inches for 4th of July with all the visitors. I swear half of them camp out on Sandy Neck Beach. It is full of campers, parked almost on top of each other with non stop parties and fireworks.

The pattern in our neighborhood seems to be everyone goes to the beach for the day and then we meet up for cocktails and bonfire hopping and fireworks on the beach. The rest of the day we go with the flow.

Sandwich still has an old fashioned 4th of July celebration. It starts with a road race and then they hold a parade downtown- St John's - a beautiful church on the parade route even hosts a pancake breakfast. It is followed by a town picnic and egg toss and fireman's muster. In the evening there is a bandstand concert and a parade of lighted boats on Shawme Pond.

[MikePRU]

The 4th of July celebration here in Needham I've heard is incredible and lasts a couple of days at least. I say "I've heard" because I've lived in this town for almost 8 years and have never seen it with my own eyes. My wife's family has traditionally gone away for the holiday so I've been absorbed into that tradition. We've gone various places like NH and MV. Personally, I'd be happy to stay home for the holiday.

[xo_kizzy_xo]

Heh, I usually have to work on the 4th I am this year, too.

One of my SILs usually hosts the family cookout. I have no idea who's doing it this year -- we haven't heard anything yet. The town where one of my SILs lives has an annual parade. I've never seen it because the roads are closed and the parade is in full swing by the time I get out of work.

It's just as well because I don't like crowds. I love watching fireworks, though. Haven't been able to do that in a long time because I usually have to be at work very early on the 5th.

[luvmyhoss]

For 30 years we hosted a large backyard cookout. 65 people. This was on the third of
July because we could se the fireworks from our yard.
Quit doing that last year thank g.
Then we went to an outlook nearby and on the fourth could see 13 separate cities fireworks!

[goyguy]

This brainless last-minute decision to move Boston's festivities a day forward because of possible bad weather is going to throw a monkey wrench into a lot of people's plans:

Who ever heard of "postponing" something to a day earlier???