Staunton takes its Independence Day celebrations seriously. The city held its annual Happy Birthday America party at Gypsy Hill Park on Tuesday – and that was the conclusion of a three-day event. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
[sounds of carnival rides, families, distant music]
For a city of just 25,000 people, Staunton goes hard for the Fourth of July. A parade, carnival rides, food stands, a day and a half of musical performances, and a fireworks show are all rolled up into a free event called "Happy Birthday America." It was founded as "Happy Birthday USA" by Country Music Hall of Fame band The Statler Brothers in 1970.
This year's celebration started with some unexpected pyrotechnics, as the News Leader reported that a 1965 Mustang caught fire in the morning parade. But it was extinguished without anyone getting hurt. By the time I showed up at 6:30 in the evening, the shuttle driver said the crowd was starting to pick up.
[Jack & Davis Reid Music performing "Country Roads"]
Jack & Davis Reid Music were on stage out in the ballfields, where a sea of people sat in lawn chairs and danced in the grass. This is the third generation of Reids to be involved with the event. Their fathers are first cousins Wil and Langdon Reid of the band Wilson Fairchild, who also performed on Tuesday. And their fathers are Harold and Don Reid of the Statler Brothers.
Out by the basketball court, families were buying Thai food, lemonade, and funnel cakes. Kids were riding the flying chairs. And teens were playing carnival games and longboarding around the parking lot.
SHANE WRIGHT: I'm usually running rides, that's kind of what I do.
Shane Wright was there working the carnival.
WRIGHT: This week we just did Churchville, we're doing this, and then Thursday, we open in Elkton. So that's, the traveling is my favorite part. … Well I'm 42 and I started when I was 13 … around Rochester, Auburn area, that's where I started at. … Anything they'd pay me to do. I used to run games, and then I graduated onto rides when I got older. I've done this most of my life.
Tucked under one of the food vendor tents, Ytsel Gomez Martinez was manning the register for the Bridgewater-based taco truck Martinez Kitchen. Her family's from Mexico, so back in the old country they would celebrate Mexican Independence Day in September. On Tuesday, though, they were in Staunton to support the 4th of July revelers.
YTSEL GOMEZ MARTINEZ: We're selling tacos, quesadillas, Jarritos, steak and cheese, aguas frescas! Yeah.
Up next on the stage was Wilson Fairchild, who called on the crowd to unite across political divisions.
LANGDON REID: This has always been about the community, and giving back, and we, we're just happy that we're able to be a small part of it.
WIL REID: And here's one thing that we will add. We also have the vision [strums guitar] for this celebration that this is not a political event. We all can have our own opinions, but we think that we can come together one day as Americans and celebrate the greatest nation on the earth.
[applause, Wilson Fairchild plays "Left Handed Woman"]
The evening's activities also included a salute to veterans. One attendee who served was 80-year-old Waynesboro native Clyde Henkel, who I spotted near the food trucks wearing a Navy hat.
CLYDE HENKEL: Well, I went in the Navy in 1962 and I retired from the Coast Guard on September 30, 1989, so I spent 11 years in the Navy and 16 years in the Coast Guard.
He spent 1967 and '68 in Vietnam on the U.S.S. Camp, where he says the grace of God allowed them to survive Typhoon Carla, which threatened to capsize the ship. I asked him what the Fourth of July meant to him as a veteran.
HENKEL: It means a lot because I put my life on the line for my country. … I don't worship a flag, but the flag means a lot to me. I worship Jesus Christ, but I do appreciate the flag and I don't like when people burn the flag and do that kind of thing. … And I don't like the way we're going now. It looks like we're being run by the communists in this country now, and it's really kind of sad, because we were founded on Christianity and Judaism. … But I'm proud I was able to serve in the military, for 27 years, of the biggest, best country in the world.
The evening's headliner was a longstanding country music star who's recorded 34 studio albums and had a Billboard number-one hit in 1982.
ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, please make welcome to the stage the singer's singer, country music legend, Gene Watson!
[audience cheers, band plays "Between This Time and Next Time"]
[fireworks explode in the distance]
At the end of the night, onlookers thronged around the duck pond to watch fireworks exploding overhead, before filing out of the park and back into their own little slices – or, perhaps, silos – of America.
