Red, White and Barbecue

With the Club set to host its annual Independence Day Celebration next month, Members reminisce about holiday traditions back home.

On July 4, 1776, the United States declared its independence to the world. A free nation was born and now every year, on the Independence Day holiday, Americans celebrate the country’s sovereignty and recognize those who sacrificed in the name of liberty.

Ahead of the Club’s own festivities on July 4, Members from numerous different states share memories of Fourth of July celebrations from back home. Besides the ubiquitous parades, barbecues, patriotic music and fireworks displays, their stories of boat parades, pig roasts, fish fries and other local traditions reflect the diverse cultures of a country that joins together one day a year to celebrate a shared history.

Alabama & Vermont
Jeffrey Behr
Growing up in Alabama, we celebrated the Fourth of July by visiting the beaches along the Gulf of Mexico to escape the blistering heat. The nights were filled with fireworks, boiling crabs and grilling the day’s fresh-caught snapper and shrimp over an open fire on the beach. We also lived in Vermont for several years. We usually enjoyed cool weather for the July Fourth parades. The dairy farmers rode their tractors through our small village while kids and dogs followed in their red wagons. The day was full of local musicians’ concerts, and some may remember Phish playing. Others would not!

California & Idaho
Dean Rogers
My grandparents’ house is located on Point Dume in Malibu, where I spent every Fourth of July growing up. You don’t get more Californian than Fourth of July in Malibu. Barges anchor in the bay and launch huge firework displays. Also, people on the beach down below my grandparents’ cliff-top house light off big fireworks that explode right in front of our eyes. My great-grandparents bought our first cabin at Priest Lake, Idaho, which is over 100 years old. The lake is a place that five generations of my family have been coming to every summer. I bought my own place there about four years ago. Fourth of July in either place is about family and celebrating our country’s independence.

Colorado & Florida
Stephanie Toppino
Our Fourth of July holiday in Colorado is total Americana. There is a parade with homemade floats, decorated dogs and fire trucks spraying their hoses to cool off the crowd. There is always traditional American barbecue and activities like mechanical bull riding and face painting. Each year, they bring out bald eagles for everyone to see up close. The celebration is not complete without fireworks. They start with skydivers waving an American flag. In Miami, where I grew up, everything really centered on the water. People would take their boats out and watch fireworks while out on the water. You could also go to different islands or sandbars to barbecue.

Florida
Alaine Lee
The best Fourth of July memories I have are from visits to my parents’ house in Florida. Every year, we attend the annual Flagler Beach parade. This small town parade has marching bands, floats, antique cars, fire trucks and civic groups like the veterans and scout troops. Everyone dresses in red, white and blue. Most people spend time at the beach, the pool, have picnics and barbecues. Then we drive to the beach to see the fireworks.

Georgia
Sandy Isaka
Every year, my family would get together for a picnic and in the evening we would draw in the air with sparklers and watch a local fireworks display. One of the best displays in Atlanta is at Stone Mountain Park. Crowds relax on a big, grassy lawn while watching a very patriotic laser show on the mountainside, followed by fireworks.

Illinois
Crystal Goodfliesh
We always looked forward to Fourth of July weekend in Milton, Illinois, where I come from. It meant we were going to the demolition derby, followed by a concert by some country and western artist from Nashville at the Pike County Fairgrounds in Griggsville. There were carnival rides and games, corn dogs and cotton candy. It started out with the national anthem and ended with red, white and blue fireworks.

Indiana
Sarah Fleeger
We spend every Fourth at a lake house with an abundance of friends and family. Throughout the day, there is waterskiing, Jet Skiing and swimming. We also enjoy barbecue and plenty of beverages. As it gets dark, there is a bonfire where we make s’mores and prepare for the grand fireworks show. Boats line up on the lake to watch the fireworks. This is always one of the most relaxing, joyous days of the year.

Kansas
Brent Barnes
As a kid back in Lawrence, Kansas, sleeping in on July 4th was never an option. After waking to the first few early-morning pops, I would jump out of bed, inhale a bowl of Wheaties with three scoops of sugar, grab my stash of fireworks and dash out to join my neighborhood buddies. Afternoons were spent at the local pool, enjoying organized games and relays and eating watermelon. Evenings consisted of fireworks at the University of Kansas football stadium. It was always a great day to be a kid.

Kansas & Washington, DC
Charlotte Kennedy Takahashi
Until 12 years old, I grew up near DC, where we visited the National Mall to hear military bands on the Fourth. I remember dancing as a child to “Stars and Stripes Forever.” My parents loved John Philip Sousa and heard him personally in the 1920s. As a teenager in Kansas, my uncle, who played professionally with Benny Goodman, played with his band inside a white, trellised city park carousel. We sat on the lawn and talked and danced until it got dark. The Fourth always meant music to me and that is why I always enjoyed TAC celebrations.

Kentucky
Nancy Nussbaum
We would spend the Fourth of July with my mother’s family in Fulton, Kentucky. My grandmother always made sure to have plenty of Kentucky barbecue on hand. Every day, the mosquito truck would come by and fog the neighborhood at sundown. Then we would go to the park and watch the fireworks, come back and light our own sparklers and Black Snakes in the driveway. Our holiday always included a drive to Reelfoot Lake for all-you-can-eat catfish, crappie, Kentucky ham, green beans, hushpuppies and baked apples. We would stuff ourselves then stroll along the banks of the lake looking for eagles.

Maine
Bruce Stronach
Central Maine Fourth of July celebrations in the 1950s and ’60s were much like those in any other American rural community, with two exceptions: I doubt whether the P of H Grange women in Iowa did picnics complete with lobster, clams, potatoes and corn all steamed in big piles of seaweed, and for the many Francophone members of my community, the Fourth of July was just the warm-up for the Bastille Day celebrations at the Calumet Club in Augusta.

Michigan
Jeff Schrepfer
I think of backyard barbecues with family and friends, lighting a few bottle rockets and packing into a car to go to the local fireworks display. I especially remember the Fourth of July, 1976, when I was 8 years old. It was the bicentennial and I was enthralled by the whole spectacle. I begged my parents for a bicentennial-themed bedroom, complete with a red, white and blue bed comforter and a Declaration of Independence light switch cover.

Minnesota
Katherine Hall
In the early 1970s, my parents began hosting a July 4th party on 40 acres of woods they own in rural Minnesota. They invited friends and their children to play games, and the day ended with a potluck dinner and fireworks. My father created four teams to compete in four games, and the triumphant team won bragging rights and a red, white and blue ribbon. The same parents who brought their young children in the 1970s still come each year, now with their adult children and grandchildren.

Missouri
Alaina Weimer
A typical St Louis Fourth of July celebration starts with a backyard grill-out, including grilled pork steaks, a local staple. Since it is legal to purchase fireworks, most of my family barbecues ended with sparklers, roman candles and rockets. For professional firework displays, food, drinks, live entertainment and an air show, most St Louisans head to Fair Saint Louis. And Independence Day week wouldn’t be complete without a Cardinals baseball game.

New Jersey
Jamie Burger
Even though we lived in Jersey, some of my favorite July 4th memories are of going into Manhattan with my family, shopping around the Village during the day and then climbing onto the West Side Highway after they block it off to watch the Macy’s fireworks on the East River. They are some of the most amazing fireworks in the world.

New York
Jason Miller
It wouldn’t be the Fourth of July in New York City without the annual fireworks show on the East River. The fireworks are set off from the Brooklyn Bridge and barges, with the silhouette of Brooklyn as the backdrop. If we are at the beach, our club hosts a barbecue and party, with 2,000 members and guests. The kids enjoy climbing walls, slides and bouncy castles until sunset, when the music starts and the fireworks begin.

North Carolina
Suzanne Sease
The Fourth of July was an all-day party in our Charlotte neighborhood. The day began with a bicycle parade. Kids worked for weeks decorating bikes with red, white and blue streamers, balloons, noisemakers and flags. The parade ended at the pool, where we played games and ate hamburgers and hot dogs from the grill. Then the fireworks began. They were nothing like the fireworks you see now, but they were still exciting as a child.

Oregon
Peter Opdahl
July 4th was split between two parties of my parents’ friends. One roasted a whole pig in a pit and the other ran a small ranch and barbecued up a number of lambs. We kids ate, swam and ran around like monkeys until evening, when we went to the county fairgrounds and watched the fireworks from the beds of pickups or through the rolled-down window of a station wagon.

Pennsylvania
Betty Butler
Growing up in a Philadelphia suburb, the Fourth of July meant a day of all-American activities. A game of backyard stickball would start the day, followed by the neighborhood parade of baseball teams, Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, firemen and policemen, costumers and the decorated bicycle contestants. Then it was the barbecue. Dad always made his famous hamburgers, accompanied by Mom’s salads and desserts. We later lined up our lawn chairs for the fireworks, which were always amazing.

Tennessee
James Fink
A typical Fourth of July in my hometown of Germantown, Tennessee, would include a family reunion or neighborhood backyard party with a fish fry of crappie, bream and bass, barbecue, hamburgers and hot dogs, homemade ice cream, music and games for kids. Individual and large-scale firework displays would both be common.

Texas & New Mexico
Chris Marquez
When in Texas, we typically smoke a brisket and ribs on our 6-foot horizontal smoker—about a 14-hour process. We then invite family and friends over and sit on our balcony and watch firework shows from across a lake called Brushy Creek. In New Mexico, we spend time at my wife’s parents’ house with sisters and cousins. The house is outside of the city limits and allows for private firework shows, so we load up on heavy-duty fireworks for the adults and sparklers for the children.

Utah & California
Brenda Bohn
In Utah, we would have a family backyard barbecue of hot dogs, burgers, corn on the cob and watermelon. Sometimes in the afternoons, my brothers and I would go hiking in the Rocky Mountains near our home. In the evening, the younger kids would set off fireworks on the sidewalk, and we would drive up into the foothills of the Rockies for a good view of the multiple firework shows. After I got married, we moved to Northern California. San Francisco celebrations were always exciting. We would attend various home barbecues or picnic on the beach. In the evening, we would go up on our roof in North Beach to watch the fireworks.

Washington
Abby Radmilovich
We would spend the day waterskiing on the Columbia or Snake River and then watch the fireworks while boating on the river. Kentucky fried chicken or barbecued steaks, hot dogs or hamburgers were a must and plenty of ice-cold watermelon to counteract the 100-degree heat.

July Fourth at the Club
Next month’s Independence Day Celebration’s Old-Fashioned Americana theme is sure to ignite memories of childhood July Fourth holidays.
Complete with traditional barbecue, patriotic music and family fun, this year’s event doubles as a fundraiser for USO Japan, a nonprofit that supports American military personnel and their families.
 
Also new this year is the highly anticipated chili cook-off, and Members are invited to dig out that recipe for a chance to have their creation featured on a menu at the Club.

This full day of festivities includes a family fun run/walk, led by Olympic hammer thrower and Club Member Koji Murofushi, the always entertaining pie-eating contest, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament and performance by the Samurai Ballers stunt artists, and oodles of kids’ activities.
All in all, this American-sized birthday bash is sure to feel just like home.

Independence Day Celebration
Saturday, July 4
9 a.m. Family Fun Run/Walk (Club entrance)
10:30 a.m. 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament and Samurai Ballers (Gymnasium)
11 a.m. Children’s Activities (Gymnasium)
12 p.m. Independence Day Reception (Winter Garden)
12:30–2 p.m. and 2:30–4 p.m. American Barbecue Buffet (New York Ballroom)
12:30–4 p.m. Chili Cook-Off, Pie-Eating Contest and Live Music (New York Ballroom)
6:30–9:30 p.m. Independence Day Dinner (CHOP Steakhouse)

Sign up online from June 1
(Prices to be determined.)

Words: Nick Narigon
Photo: Kohji Shiiki