boom!

Although two songs were included in published Farmer Boy, no singing was mentioned in the existing manuscript. At the Independence Day celebration, the only song reference was to the noise of the cannons being fired: "As Yankee Doodle said, it made a sound like father's gun, only a nation louder." (Chapter 16)

I have to admit that this chapter leaves me cold, and not just because it starts out with frozen corn and spashes of cold water. It must have been heavily edited by Rose; the manuscript has no confrontation with Cousin Frank, no sucking pigs, no lemonade, no bits from the Declaration of Independence, no town pump, no liefs and double dares, no half dollars, no axes and plows making the country. Details about the firing of the cannon were left in, but one can imagine that the cannon fire was something Almanzo would have remembered and related to Laura, and Laura dearly loved a detail.

According to Dorothy Smith's The Wilder Family Story (1972), the actual celebration did included the reading of the Declaration of Independence, speeches, orations, prayers, and the ringing of bells and the firing of guns.

In Farmer Boy, the Revolutionary War is remembered, but not the Civil War, which must have been on the hearts and minds of everyone who attended a Fourth of July celebration in 1866, not only in Malone, but everywhere, except perhaps for Portland, Maine, which almost burned to the ground that holiday due to a child's mishap with a firecracker.

I've uploaded the front pages of the New York Times for July 5, 1866;
CLICK HERE to read some of how a Glorious Fourth was celebrated that year: Nine thousand men in parade - Letters from President Johnson and General Grant - Fireworks - A beautiful day - Half-masted flags.... The flag that flew that year had 36 stars; Nevada had been admitted to the Union in October 1864, and this flag had been adopted on July 4th of the previous year.

Btw, happy birthday, Almanzo.
- posted by pioneergirl at 6:30 PM