Thorpe Discusses Community Plans for 4th of July, 1919

From The Badin Bulletin, Albemarle, N.C., June 1919 issue.

Fourth of July Celebration

By J.E.S. Thorpe

The thought has been expressed by a number of people that we should make the coming Fourth of July an historic one, and in order to obtain the ideas and suggestions as to how best we can celebrate this eventful Fourth I hope everyone will give some thought this year towards making it a glorious one.

I think we can do well by duplicating some of the ideas carried out last year.

In order to give the men in the works who are engaged in the operating end of the business an opportunity to enter into at least one part of the celebration, we will divide the day into three parts—the morning, afternoon, and evening. In this way our friends in the Carbon Plant and Potrooms will have an opportunity to participate in at least one portion of the program.

Fourth of July, 1918, we could not enter into the sports with the enthusiasm we would like to have had, because our brothers were engaged in a death struggle in France; but this year that unfortunate phase of the situation is happily over, and the boys in France will engage in and enjoy the day as much as we will at home, and we can throw our whole energy into it, with the gratification that it is a dual celebration of our independence and that of the rest of the world.

We will form committees to take care of the various parts of the program, and it will be of considerable aid to these committees if we can get some suggestions from the people of Badin for a happy day.

I do not intend to outline the program in detail in this article, as that will be left for the various committees, after the suggestions have been received, but I do hope that everyone will take part in the celebration in at least one of the three divisions of the program.

It has been suggested that we invite the people of Albemarle to participate with us, and I think this is a very happy suggestion.

The general sports, I think, we should hold in the morning; the baseball game in the afternoon starting about 3:30 or 4 o’clock; and then the evening celebration after 8 o’clock. This will allow all the men in the potrooms and carbon plant to join us in the major part of the program.

All wishing to participate in the various sports, will please see the committees, to be appointed, who will take their entries and make arrangements after they have outlined their part of the program.

It is hoped that everyone will do what they can to make the coming Fourth a happy and successful day.