Celebrating freedom

Even while people went on picnics, laid in the shade or swam on the Fourth of July, their thoughts didn't stray far from the red, white and blue.

"You have to think about the soldiers still in Iraq," said Diane Cook of Chaffee, Mo. Her son was put on alert last year with his Air National Guard unit out of St. Louis.

He didn't have to serve overseas, but that really brought it close to home, said her husband, Ken Cook.

Richard and Sue Harrington of Cape Girardeau almost considered canceling their annual Fourth of July picnic with family and friends because Sue had been sick recently. But she reconsidered -- the war in Iraq played heavily on their minds. And Richard really wanted to wear his festive hat.

"I thought we've just got to have it because of what's happened," Sue Harrington said.

Across Southeast Missouri, people found ways to remember sacrifices made for freedom and to celebrate their nation's independence. Crowds gathered in Jackson's city park for the annual Jaycee Fourth of July celebration and in downtown Cape Girardeau for Libertyfest. Park shelters were packed with families gathered for barbecues and picnics.

Temperatures reached 93 degrees, with a heat index of 96 during the day, so many people sought ways to stay cool.

Sgt. Steven Hayden, park ranger at Trail of Tears State Park, said the crowds were packed on the beach at Boutin Lake by midafternoon Friday. "The beach is always our busiest," he said. By 5:30 p.m., the crowds were thinning.

Avis Bell and a dozen of her relatives gathered around picnic tables in the shade of Cherry Hill at Capaha Park in Cape Girardeau to kick off their holiday festivities. The family usually has a picnic or barbecue to mark the Fourth.

To be able to be an American and enjoy all the freedoms the nation offers is what this holiday is all about, Bell said. "I thought about that the first thing this morning," she said. "We should appreciate what we have and not take advantage of it."

Jeremy Burgess, 21, of Chaffee deeply appreciates the sacrifices U.S. soldiers made for his freedom.

"It's definitely a great nation we live in, and to be able to celebrate like this is because of their acts for freedom," he said.

His brother, Troy Hobbs, served as a special operations agent in Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s.

Freedom is what the holiday is all about, said Burgess' wife, Amanda.

The couple and their three children came to celebrate the day at the Jackson park.

Back to normal

Besides celebrating American independence, the annual Jaycees' event helped return things to normal for the city that just two months ago was hit by a tornado, said Donnie Glueck, a Jaycee member.

"It puts things back to normal even though the town isn't completely fixed," he said. "This is what Jackson is about."

While there was no admission charge to the park, organizers guessed 20,000 people attended the day's events and evening's fireworks display.

It was the fireworks that drew Taylor Moore, 4, and her grandfather, Tom Moore, to the park early in the evening.

"She can't hardly wait for the fireworks," he said.

Crowds gathered on the Common Pleas Courthouse steps and throughout downtown Friday evening for Libertyfest, a celebration that included a patriots' bicycle parade, Dixieland bands and fireworks.

Ben Tlapek missed the parade, but that didn't stop him from decorating his bicycle spokes with red crepe paper. He and his parents rode downtown to see the fireworks display.

"I think all of them are the best," he said.

A crowd of people dressed in red, white and blue clothing dotted the hillside at the courthouse listening to the Municipal Band play Sousa marches before the fireworks were ignited from a barge in the Mississippi River.

Old Town Cape, which organized the event, estimated the crowd at between 6,000 and 7,000 people.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126