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Arts & Music

Firecrackers & Fiction

July starts with a bang and has for a good while now. And around Carrboro on Friday, the town’s annual Fourth of July celebration starts with the most red, white and blue community parade you’ve ever laid eyes on. You might hear the good name of this town disparaged elsewhere as un-American because many folks here share left-of-center views (such as a fondness for habeas corpus), but we’ll match our Fourth celebration, our love of country and our stylish bunting against anybody’s.

The Fourth is also one of those events where Carrboro and Chapel Hill have managed to work out a way to share a holiday. Carrboro is the daytime spot with baby races, face-paining, Sousa, watermelon, ice cream, bluegrass, rock and roll and a lot of other fun stuff to see and do. In the evening, it’s the big city’s turn to shine, with the annual music and fireworks show at Kenan Stadium.
While the month starts with a bang, the true essence of July is easy-going, some might even say slothful. It used to be that come mid-July, tumbleweeds rolling on the eastward breezes were unencumbered from the hundred block of Franklin clean through to Carrboro and on down to University Lake.

Other than the occasional sidewalk sale or random revelries, it was a time to put your feet up and read that book you set aside for an extended bit of quiet.

We’re not so much the university’s factory town anymore, and even the school itself is a lot more alive than it was is the dusty days of summers past. But by July 25, when the second summer school session ends at Carolina, rest assured we’ll see a noticeable lull in the action.

Despite the modern pace, these are still the best days to crack that novel you’ve had by the bed all for the past several months and through the magic of the written word spend some time moving through time and space without flinching nary a muscle.