East Hampton expressed its enthusiasm for entering the Great War in Europe with the “Preparedness” parade on July 4, 1916. And it was not the kind of commemoration people were used to. One float invoking Civil War emotions featured Miss Liberty with her staff and shield, an army tent and cannonballs, and three Civil War veterans with a Red Cross nurse. The side of the float read “Abraham Lincoln Was Not Too Proud to Fight,” a direct rebuff to a neutralist remark in a speech by President Woodrow Wilson. A banner above read “Has the Blood We Shed in ‘61 Turned to Water in 1916.” The winning entry was a dirty and battered vehicle suggesting war damage with a sign reading “Unprepared.”
After the country went to war and so many men answered the call to duty women were encouraged to move from cities and towns to learn how to plow, plant and harvest and to become “farmerettes.” Over 20,000 women pitched in and intentionally or not challenged gender roles of their time.
A politically aware Amagansett entry in the July 4th parade of 1917 depicted what was called the Women’s Land Army with a float populated by a cow, ducks, straw, milk pails, and women in working clothes. A sign based on a popular song informed viewers “I love you great big city, but I want to go back to the farm.”
By contrast, our Independence Day parades in the Hamptons a century later avoid controversy and provocation in favor of a one-size-fits-all patriotism.
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Note to Editor:
[A general history of fireworks or parades here just did not work as a narrative without good specific anecdotes, and I did not have space for that. I focused on the important July 4 1916 parade, for which there are a number of pictures and descriptions, and followed up with 1917. The article can only really work with a photo of the 1916 float I describe and if we have room, of the 1917 float. Both are available from the EH library.]