OK by Alaska standards Sitka isn’t a small town, but it can feel like it.  As one friend wrote in a song, no one uses turn signals because everyone already knows where you are going.  Skagway, Alaska is really a small town and before they were inundated with cruise ship passengers it had one of the coolest Independence Day parades in Alaska.  It was small but lasted a long time because the parade kept going ‘round and ‘round the same block.  We took my parents there once year my father remarked that some of the floats looked familiar and Skagway seemed to have a lot of kazoo bands.  One band, two floats and the marchers and bikers going ‘round and ‘round until they got tired.

The 4^th of July is a community holiday.  It is one of those days when the community gathers and celebrates together.  Sitka’s Independence Day starts with a parade of old vehicles that cruise through town, out both ends of the road, and ends up at the extended care facility so the elders can watch.  It started during COVID when traditional gatherings seemed like a bad idea.  People liked it and it stayed.

At noon is a contra dance, which I didn’t get to this year, with the parade to follow.  The parade also leads off with change bell ringing from St. Michael’s Orthodox Cathedral and a Coast Guard helicopter flyover.  The fly very slowly, almost pacing the lead police car in the parade.  I kept thinking, “They must be at stall speed.”  But they are helicopters dummy!  Jayhawks. 

Kevin marched with his class of ’95 having their 30 year reunion.  Twenty, thirty and fifty Sitka High class reunions marched in the parade.   Grandson Liam was in the unicycle brigade.  His middle school has a tradition born on COVID, of having the graduates ride around in cars waving to people passing by.  Liam eschewed a car and led the parade on a unicycle hi fiving the underclassmen as he rode by.  I told this to a friend at the radio station, and she invited Liam to join their brigade. 

Following the parade there are activity and food booths.  My favorite is fry bread. There are also games for kids, like sack races and toddler runs. 

At 3 PM there is the great spray down. It started as a water fight between the fire department and Coast Guard.  They put a keg in the middle of the street and, using fire hoses, tried to roll the keg across the other team’s goal line.  Best of three, winner gets the beer.  But they shared.  At the end the hoses get turned on everyone.  During COVID the water fight went away and while it hasn’t returned the firetrucks hook up to the hydrant in front of the radio station (don’t try to run the water on the second floor) and spray everyone down.  This is a favorite, which is strange because it doesn’t really get hot in Sitka and most July 4^ths it’s raining.  This year was the exception, it was a glorious day.

At 4 PM the Rotary Duck race which raises tens of thousands of dollars for local non-profits every year.  This year I couldn’t get out to Granite Creek because I was busy ferrying kids and grandkids to their events.  Six thousand numbered rubber duckies are dumped into Granite Creek and they race to the sea to be captured by nets at the mouth of the creek.  Winners get prized, proceeds go to support the community.

In the evening there was a blues and rock dance that we skipped to watch the 10 PM lingering sunset. 

The official fireworks for Sitka are on July 5^th this year and we will be watching from the radio station front porch, but that does not stop Sitka purists from firing off ordinance on the evening of July 4^th.  At about 11:30, with the long summer twilight lingering (it lingers until sunrise at 4 AM) folks in Jamestown Bay fired off fireworks from a barge.  Closer to town another impromptu fireworks display fired off as well.

At midnight the fireworks ended and we had a beautiful moon over the bay.

Happy 4^th.