The manner of celebrating the Fourth of July may have changed, but there are plenty of similarities to be found in the holiday descriptions over the years.

It’s still mostly about fun, sun, food and family reunions. I recall that a meal with the season’s first fresh peas from the garden was usually a goal at our family farm. The afternoon was the time when youngsters took turns cranking the ice cream churn in the wooden tub filled with ice chips.

It seems that lemonade and peanuts were Fourth of July customs I had not heard about. Ruby A. Briggs wrote about early traditions in a Lewiston Evening Journal magazine section article on July 3, 1942. She recalled how peanut shells were all over the cities’ sidewalks on the holiday early in the century.

Briggs also said lemonade was sold at just about all public events on street corners and in parks. For these outdoor refreshments, “a dozen glass tumblers might serve a hundred people before they got too sticky to be used,” she said. “There was a pail of water handy, out of sight, where the glasses could be soused several times a day during a lull in sales.”

Accounts of the holiday in early newspapers always mentioned picnics and excursions. Briggs described L-A holiday crowds who rode the Grand Trunk Railway to Portland for a boat ride to Peaks Island.

Another account described a trip by about 400 people, largely from Lewiston and Auburn, who joined in an excursion down to Portland Harbor aboard the steamer John Brooks.

“They had a delightful trip, going down as far as Harpswell and taking a look at the cottages of the Auburn colony,” the newspaper reporter said.

The report concluded, “There were only two cases of drunkenness on board. The police seized the bottles and threw them overboard.”

Some years, celebrations were surprisingly muted.

“We have never seen Lewiston and Auburn so quiet and lamb-like on a public holiday, much less on the Glorious Fourth, as were these two cities on yesterday,” said a news column in the July 5 edition of the Lewiston Evening Journal of 1877. It told of an early evening crowd of about 5,000 people out to enjoy Lewiston Park, and to admire the nearby “rows of Chinese lanterns descending from the trees on the grounds of W.F. Goulding, Esq., where a picnic was in progress.”

Despite a mostly quiet holiday, the newspaper said municipal court handled a record 32 cases, mostly intoxication.

“The city was ‘real wet’ over the holiday, and most of the drunks were ‘alky jags,’” it said, adding that otherwise it was a quiet Fourth when police had little to do but “administer to persons injured in explosions of firecrackers and the like.”

The Fourth of July holiday in 1924 served as a special date for the opening of a new business in Auburn. That was Auburn Lunch located in the Auburn Hall block. It was the city’s first “self-serve restaurant” and, under the proprietorship of Paul Angelides, it was to employ 16 people including “countermen mostly from New York.”

The news account said, “All the tile walls are hand-painted squares in colors showing the Y.M.C.A., the County Building, the post office, Edward Little High School, and North Bridge and the falls.”

Free coffee and doughnuts were served on opening day. The doors were locked for the night, the story said, and once unlocked the next day at 6 a.m., “the keys will be thrown into the river and the restaurant will be open day and night.”

That 1924 Fourth of July also featured reports of firemen’s musters in several towns. North Auburn held an auto parade, a baked bean dinner, a ball game and an evening drama.

There has been all kinds of fun and frivolity around L-A in celebration of the Fourth of July, but two holiday dates are associated with tragic circumstances. As residents of Portland and nearby towns watched a large parade in 1866, a fire started in a boat shed and destroyed much of that city. Many firemen and pieces of fire apparatus were in the big parade at the time.

Another tragic event took place the night of July 3, 1975, when the historic Poland Spring House burned to the ground. The fire was seen live on TV in this area because WMTW-TV had its studios in the inn within sight of the blaze across the golf course.

Dave Sargent is a native of Auburn and a freelance writer. He may be reached by e-mail at [email protected].