“I’m 13 today!” yelled Johnathan Parker, as he, from the back of a dilapidated Ford pickup truck, lobbed a fistful of candy towards the crowd gathered along Main Street during Boulder’s Fourth of July parade.
Parker and his friend, fellow Boulder resident Luke Enquist, chose to celebrate both his and America’s birthday by participating in the parade. That was, I think, wonderful — and so was the parade itself.
Boulder’s Independence Day celebration, according to Jefferson County Events Coordinator Bruce Binkowski, happens each year without formal planning or coordination from county or city government. “Everyone just shows up,” he said. “No one registers, and there isn’t any coaxing or planning, really. There’s something of an unwritten tradition that if you arrive at Veterans Park before 11:30 a.m., then you’re in the parade. It materializes on its own.”
