Telluride, July 4th, A Story Updated for Today’s America by Rosemerry!

03 Jul Telluride, July 4th, A Story Updated for Today’s America by Rosemerry!

Telluride on the Fourth of July, a place, a happening straight out of yesterday from Kodak to Hallmark, and Rockwell, all updated with this whip-smart, poignant, spot-on commentary for today’s socio-cultural environment by none other than Telluride’s favorite Word Women: Rosemerry Trommer.

In addition to the usual fun and games, Telluride’s  Sheridan Arts Foundation hosts Telluride Plein Air and there are magical happenings in Mountain Village. 

Read on for details. And Rosemerry’s pearls.

Rosemerry, credit Joanne Schwartz.

Dear America,

today I will parade
not on your main streets
but mostly alone amongst
your aspen groves,
will praise your purple
mountain’s majesty,
your scarlet gilia,
your vast blue spruce.
I will praise the public land
beneath my feet
where someday soon
hawk’s wings will rise
from untouched duff,
and I will glory in
your spacious skies,
how quiet they can be.
America, just today
one of your sons
arrived with a giant
bouquet of rhubarb
he cut from his own wild yard—
a small proof of what
your finest citizens do—
find ways to support
other citizens,
no matter their color,
no matter their stripes.
America, in my one-woman
parade, with every step,
I am cheering for you.

The original resolution calling for the Continental Congress to declare the United States free from British rule was introduced by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia on June 7, 1776. Three days later, a committee headed by Thomas Jefferson was appointed to prepare a document appropriate to the cause.

The Declaration of Independence was adopted by Congress on July 4, although the resolution that led to its writing had been approved two days earlier, prompting President James Adams to say:

“The second day of July 1776 will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, fun, bells, bonfires and illumination from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more.” (From “John Adams” by David McCullough.)

Apart from slipping two days on the calendar to July 4, a ho-hum day back in Adams’ time, his vision became tradition: the Fourth of July became a big birthday party our nation throws for itself.

In Telluride that tradition, which began in the 1880s, had gotten out of control some time in the early 1970s. Town cancelled the Fourth of July party until further notice. When the holiday was reinstated on the summer calendar a year or two later, the main event was a bbq and fireworks sponsored by the Fire Department.

That was it. No frills. Less fun.

But, in the late-1980s thanks to the efforts of Joyce Allred and Shari Flatt, the parade returned to its past glory. Now almost everyone in town participates.

On the Fourth of July, people tend to put red state/blue state issues aside and, per F. Scott Fitzgerald, “stand at moral attention,” saluting the Stars and Stripes as one nation. On that day, we honor the young men and women who put on uniforms, boarded trains and planes and promised their families they would return, knowing full well they might not be back at all.

Telluride’s spin on the Fourth includes the parade straight out of Norman Rockwell, a flyover, kids, dogs, horses, floats, wagons, bikes, bbq, wild-eyed hippies, men and women in uniform and the crowd of cheerleaders, drones and lasers and, weather permitting, spectacular fireworks.