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Alpena parties like it’s 1776

News File Photo Paradegoers honor the American Flag at the 2019 Alpena Fourth of July parade in this News file photo.

By JULIE RIDDLE

News Staff Writer

ALPENA — From side streets they came, pouring onto the lawns and sidewalks lining Chisholm, 2nd, Fletcher.

Spilling over curbs, encamped in lawn chairs, little ones bouncing in impatience with ribbons in their hair, draped in blue and red and white.

It was Independence Day in Alpena. The parade was coming, the day was beginning, and familial celebration was in the air.

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley A participant in Thursday’s Fourth of July parade in downtown Alpena is seen mid-cartwheel.

The parade took its time, trucks pulling decorated wagons and dancers dancing and little cars zipping. Candy and beads and popsicles flung themselves at the feet of delighted children, who scrambled to collect their treasures while more dignified adults watched from their chairs, plotting how to nab a Tootsie Roll. Ambulances and dance clubs and baseball teams marched by, waving, walking united, celebrating independence with a day of togetherness.

“Today is the Fourth of July,” a small voice from the crowd said. “I love this day. You get candy thrown at you.”

The parking lot of the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center was transformed after the parade, peopled with vendors selling smoothies, bratwurst, and maple cotton candy. A patient line stretched away from the red Kiwanis truck, the lure of a fish sandwich reeling in hungry customers.

Further on, children bounced on bouncy things and crafted carefully with glue-coated fingers at the Make Your Own Wee Boat station. Excitement blended with nervousness on the faces of people standing in line to take a helicopter ride. People carried plates of foil-wrapped hot dogs and chatted at picnic tables and took pictures of the kids.

Around the corner, artists of all ages were hard at work, hands and knees colorful with chalk. The sidewalk north of the center was transformed into a canvas, blended color presenting gulls and anchors and sunshine back to admiring crowds. Nearby, pop-up canopies along the sidewalk offered trinkets, information, and rope-making to people in sun hats and tank tops ambling along the sidewalk. Quiet folk music and the gentle click of bicycle wheels wove among pockets of conversation, people greeting people, people making plans, people in lawn chairs contentedly watching the water, people gently enjoying freedom and sunshine.

News Photo by Julie Riddle A float-rider embodying freedom flings candy to the crowd at the annual Alpena Independence Day parade.

At Rotary Park, across the river from the Maritime Heritage Center, boaters gathered around their cardboard and duct tape crafts, strategizing for the race that was still an hour away.

Decorated creations lay on the grass, their names spray-painted hopefully on their cardboard sides. Gorilla … Swansong … the S. S. Minnow.

“I’m feelin’ it,” the lone single-rider boater said hopefully, a dinosaur head lending a touch of menace to the prow of her home-built ship.

Upstream at the 9th Avenue bridge, a giant tarpful of cheerful yellow ducks was dumped into the river for the annual duck race, which nets its winner a $500 prize. The ducks huddled together below the bridge, then slowly made their way en masse to the retaining wall, where they steadfastly refused to float downstream.

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News Photo by Julie Riddle A first-ever sidewalk chalk contest near the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center brought out the artist in area residents, decorating the pathway with beautiful creations.

In another part of town, side streets filled as families and friends made their way to Mich-e-ke-wis Park, coolers and beach towels and sunscreen in hand. Swimsuited girls in superhero-cape towels thundered past with bare feet, sandals abandoned for the pleasure of bare feet in warm sand. Amid easy waves, young, bare arms flung themselves to the sky, their owners trust-falling into the water, gleefully splashing their way through a summer afternoon.

On land, the sand of Starlite Beach was transformed into boats, race cars, dragons, and lighthouses, opponents in The News sandcastle contest doing battle with rakes, spray bottles, trowels, and creativity. Squeals and giggles from the nearby splash park harmonized with the squeak of swings and murmur of voices from the beach, sunbathers and people-watchers lulled into a tranquil beach cadence.

Back at the Maritime Center, a colorful crowd buzzed along both sides of the river and peeked from the black-railinged pedestrian bridge. The cardboard regatta was underway, energy stirring the onlookers as fearless teams launched themselves into the water in their creations. Some, like the square-sided Gorilla, captained by two hard-paddling boys, made the journey around a buoy and back in fine style.

Other boats, their cardboard sides melting from wetness, sank spectacularly. The crew from Thunder Bay Theater, inspired by chants of encouragement from onlookers, sang songs from “Mamma Mia” as they swam their decimated wad of cardboard to shore.

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Rogue rubber ducks huddle along the retaining wall near the 9th Avenue bridge in Alpena, refusing to bob their way downstream to the finish line.

As the last race ended and bits of cardboard were plucked out of the river, the throngs of people on the grassy hills along the river melted back into the afternoon to the background sound of a flute and guitar duet, not in a rush, contemplating a nap before the evening’s fireworks.

Over the day, in and among the people strolling the sidewalk and the mango slushies and the stray piece of float-thrown candy on the curb, lay the easy peace of freedom.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Builders strategize in hopes of a winning creation at The News’ annual sandcastle-building contest at Starlite Beach.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Paddlers take off in one heat of Alpena’s annual Independence Day cardboard regatta. Taking an early lead, the Bear Crew upended and sank moments after it launched.

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