This year, I am again photographing the Pittsfield 4th of July parade after a two-year hiatus. I’ve also photographed the Williamstown 4th of July parade and countless others including the annual Fall Foliage parade in North Adams. The people at the ranch ride in a bucket loader pulling a wagon in the parade.
Last year, while in Wyoming for my wedding, I participated in the town of Dubois’ annual parade as the ranch had a wagon to ride in, and not surprisingly I took photos as well. It was fun to stand on the wagon as some of us shot water cannons into the crowds of spectators along the parade route. A self portrait of the author and her husband, Dan, riding a wagon in a Fourth of July parade in Dubois, WY in 2023.
As parades reflect the communities in which they are held, the contrast of the two parades — one in Massachusetts and the other in Wyoming — couldn’t have been more different even if the reason for celebration was the same. Independence Day is our annual celebration of nationhood, marking the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. As we approach the 2024 presidential election and the divisions in our country, we must reflect on the fabric of our country and just how diverse it is.
While Massachusetts was settled earlier and is part of New England, Wyoming, wild and vast, was settled much later as Americans moved westward. After becoming a territory of the U.S.
, it became the 44th state on July 10, 1890.
