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Local residents share reflections on Fourth of July

By Angie Santello 5 min read

Robert Yankura doesn’t celebrate America’s birthday anymore. While many Americans will take part in the traditional picnic and fireworks this Fourth of July, the 62-year-old Vietnam veteran has gone without the fanfare for the last 15 years.

“It’s like celebrating Memorial Day. It’s like celebrating death,” he said. “Look at how many have died (to have independence) and they’re still dying today.”

He said jobs and products – the actual fireworks that Americans are lighting – are now sent or made overseas. At home, he said, freedoms are becoming limited, and in foreign lands, missiles continue to be launched, killing civilians and troops.

“We’re a slave to foreign oil. We’re sending jobs overseas and cutting our jobs. People are worried if they can keep a job,” Yankura said.

“How can we celebrate Independence Day when we lost it?” he asked. “We’re losing our independence, not gaining it. Why celebrate a dying child?”

Yankura said he loves this country with it free enterprise and capitalism, but notes that we must keep it free.

“Don’t take it from us and outsource it,” said the United States Navy veteran who served six years aboard the USS Independence.

Yankura, though, is in a distinct minority as most Americans have today off from work and celebrate the holiday with various festivities, enjoying favorite foods like hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad and baked beans.

Fourth of July or Independence Day, the U.S. holiday that commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, has been the most important patriotic holiday ever since the American Revolution, according to the Web site www.infoplease.com.

The 13 Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard won independence from Great Britain and became the United States after the American Revolution or the American War of Independence, which began in 1775.

Representatives of the colonies – New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia – adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

The next year, in Philadelphia, bells rang and ships fired guns. Candles and firecrackers were lighted. But the War of Independence dragged on until 1783, and in that year, Independence Day was made an official holiday. In 1941, Congress declared Fourth of July a federal holiday, according to the Web site http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/holidays/july4.

The first Independence Day celebrations included bell ringing, bonfires, processions and speeches, while feasting has always been part of the celebrations, according to the Web site www.dictionary.com. Banquets have evolved into outdoor barbecues and picnics.

Minnie Stalnaker of York Run said the celebration has become even more elaborate now “because people have the money.”

Stalnaker recalled that Independence Day was always the first day of the year when she and her seven brothers and sisters received a taste of cold ice cream and fresh watermelon during family celebrations held decades ago.

“We were poor,” she said. “My grandfather played a squeezebox and we’d get behind him and sing ‘God Bless America.’ We’d go down the street, he with his squeezebox accordion. All the little kids go behind and sing, waving little flags.”

This holiday, Stalnaker and her husband, Elliot, will celebrate with their four sons, barbequing ribs and chicken, enjoying the good Italian foods Stalnaker prepares and then watching colorful fireworks shot from a distance. She’ll get the Fourth of July placemats and other decorations out to celebrate the occasion.

Thelma Daugherty of Upper Middletown sees the Fourth of July as a time to spend with family. She celebrates in the traditional fashion: picnic, fireworks and family togetherness.

“Only on the holidays do we get together,” she said.

Mary Descaro of Phillips, soon-to-turn 91 years old, said even with today’s fireworks shows, the holiday is quieter than it used to be.

“It used to be more loud,” she said. “Now people are busy and everybody finds things to do.”

And it is that quiet that John Panella, 76, of Uniontown looks forward to as he reflects on the holiday and its meaning this fourth.

“It’s more of a party instead of reflecting, like it used to be,” Panella said.

What will Panella, a Purple Heart and Silver Star recipient as a veteran of the Korean War, reflect on this Fourth of July?

“Years past. When the kids were all at the house,” Panella said, smiling. “My wife is deceased and the kids have moved, so now is a good time for that.”

Panella said his Korean War experience, especially when he served on the frontline for nine months, made the holiday more significant.

“I often think about that,” he said. “I saw a few of my friends die.”

Jacob Sisson, 86, who grew up at a home along Gallatin Avenue in Uniontown recalled the fanfare of long ago, when along the avenue stretched a three-ring circus or a carnival from Maple to Kerr streets, also known as “Regan’s Lot,” every Fourth of July.

“It was a big celebration. All types of sideshows, horseback riding and lots of people,” he said.

Different businesses now sit where the lot was located.

“Those days are gone,” said Sisson. “When we were kids, we had that.”

Frank Dahlgren of Fairchance said his Fourth of Julys are celebrations “of an extended family,” including his friends at the Uniontown Senior Center.

Dahlgren remembered the nostalgia of days gone by, when the celebrations revolved around family picnics and playing horseshoes in the backyard.

“It was more centered around family and the town,” Dahlgren recalled. “People were celebrating freedom.”

He said talk of other countries that are not free shows how much Americans have to be thankful for.

“It’s democracy. We have a lot of things to celebrate. We should all feel blessed,” he said.

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