"There would be floats in the morning and the one that
got the eye was the Goddess of Liberty. She was supposed to be the most
wholesome and prettiest girl in the countryside — if she wasn't she had friends
who thought she was. But the rest of us weren't always in agreement on
that…Following the float would be the Oregon Agricultural College cadets, and
some kind of a band. Sometimes there would be political effigies.
Just before lunch - and we'd always hold lunch up for
an hour - some Senator or lawyer would speak. These speeches always had one
pattern. First the speaker would challenge England to a fight and berate the
King and say that he was a skunk. This was known as twisting the lion's tail.
Then the next theme was that any one could find freedom and liberty on our
shores. The speaker would invite those who were heavy laden in other lands to
come to us and find peace. The speeches were pretty fiery and by that time the
men who drank got into fights and called each other Englishmen.
In the
afternoon we had what we called the 'plug uglies' — funny floats and clowns who
took off on the political subjects of the day…The Fourth was the day of the year
that really counted then. Christmas wasn't much; a Church tree or something, but
no one twisted the lion's tail." - Nettie Spencer
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