Two vintage Navy trainers making a low pass over a decorated balcony — American flags, red patio umbrellas, and bunting in the foreground against a clear blue sky
Two vintage Navy trainers making a low pass over a decorated balcony — American flags, red patio umbrellas, and bunting in the foreground against a clear blue sky

Happy Fourth of July — the 250th one.

Two hundred and fifty years. 1776 to now. My town's been throwing some version of this same parade longer than anyone standing on the curb today has been alive, and it'll still be throwing it long after we're all gone. And this year everybody was leaning into it — 250 on signs, on shirts, on the floats. The whole town showed up to celebrate the number.

I didn't have a plan for today beyond show up and enjoy it, and that turned out to be exactly the right amount of plan. The whole town came out for the parade — lawn chairs staked out along the curb hours early, coolers, kids on shoulders, everybody in some combination of red, white, and blue. Biggest crowd I've seen for it.

The flag on the crane

Somebody had backed a boom crane up to the parade route and hung an enormous American flag off the end of it, stretched out over the street so the whole procession passed underneath. It's the kind of small-town flourish I love — a piece of borrowed construction equipment doing ceremonial duty for a day. Every time the breeze caught it, the whole thing rippled and the crowd looked up.

An enormous American flag hung from the boom of a crane, backlit against a deep blue sky
An enormous American flag hung from the boom of a crane, backlit against a deep blue sky

Then the airplanes showed up

The best part was unscripted, or at least felt that way from the ground. A pair of old Navy trainers — one in that classic bright-yellow livery — came in low and made a couple of passes right over Main Street, close enough to hear the props before you saw them. Everyone's phones went up at once. Framing them under that giant flag was pure luck and I'll take it.

Two propeller warbirds banking through a clear sky, framed beneath the hanging stripes of the giant flag
Two propeller warbirds banking through a clear sky, framed beneath the hanging stripes of the giant flag

There was an Honor Flight tent set up along the route too, the folks who fly veterans out to see their memorials in D.C. A good thing to be reminded of on a day that's easy to spend just eating hot dogs — that the 250 years didn't happen on their own, and that some of the people who carried a piece of them were standing right there under the tent.

The parade crowd lining the street in lawn chairs under a bright sky, an Honor Flight tent along the route and a warbird overhead
The parade crowd lining the street in lawn chairs under a bright sky, an Honor Flight tent along the route and a warbird overhead

That's the whole post

No infrastructure lessons today, no postmortem. Just a good morning in a small town on a pretty remarkable anniversary — a flag big enough to drive under, some airplanes that made a lot of kids very happy, and 250 years to be glad about.

Here's to the next 250. Hope yours was a good one. 🇺🇸