They arm themselves with hammers and papier-mache, spatulas and meat thermometers, water balloons and cans of beer.
Most have been doing this for as long as they can remember, some for longer than they’d like to admit.
Come Monday, their patriotic floats will be the highlight of the parade, their perfectly seasoned ribs the hit of the barbecue.
They are the backbone of the 4th of July–men and women who have dedicated themselves, in ways large and small, to making Independence Day a true celebration.
Men like 90-year-old Stanton Schuman, who has helped organize Glencoe’s Patriotic Days for 60 years. And women like Sandra Chevalier, who will coordinate the Tinley Park fireworks display so it begins precisely when a recorded Beyonce Knowles belts out “and the rocket’s red glare.”
Bruce Erickson will be at Ribfest in Naperville, volunteering for the 17th straight year, making sure the bands that perform have everything they need. In years past, that has meant everything from locating a supply of blue jelly beans to laundering a star’s pantyhose.
Gene O’Keefe will be at Independence Park on Chicago’s Northwest Side, watching the water-balloon toss and helping direct the kids in the annual bicycle parade. He’ll be there, even though he officially retired as the park’s supervisor on Thursday.
After 16 years of helping to organize the community’s 4th of July festivities, O’Keefe wasn’t about to miss this year.
“What’s more perfect than this?” asked O’Keefe, 53, who spent Friday afternoon filling balloons with water and getting everything ready for the big day. “It’s a chance for us to get together with the community, to get to know each other and to celebrate the birth of our country.”
Few are more familiar with the concept than Schuman, who started Glencoe’s Patriotic Days committee in 1945, a year after he returned from World War II. His first move was to set up a Memorial Day celebration to honor Glencoe’s veterans. The 4th of July celebration came a few years later.
“When I came to Glencoe, there was no celebration,” Schuman said. “A couple of citizens came to me and said, `Stan, why don’t you do something about the 4th of July?'”
`Joy of living’
Schuman took charge almost six decades ago. This year there is a morning fun run, a parade, an art fair, music and fireworks at the beach. Schuman still sends out a fundraising letter each spring to every village resident, reminding them that the celebration is “a time when we can really show our joy of living in Glencoe.”
On Monday, he’ll shoot the starter’s gun to kick off the race, then distribute 1,500 flags he bought for the celebration. He’ll bring his Shih Tzu, CC, to the Pets in the Park celebration dressed in red, white and blue. And after the parade, he’ll announce the winners and hand out prizes for the best floats.
“Who else would do it?” said Schuman, a retired lawyer. “I have fun all day long.”
Others, like Gene Armstrong, will take a lower key approach. Armstrong, 64, will lord over the Weber grill in the back yard of his Oak Park home, flipping pork short ribs and chicken until they are perfectly browned.
Then he’ll lead a group of perhaps a dozen friends to watch the Oak Park and River Forest fireworks, a display he first helped organize in 1974.
At the time, Armstrong said, the towns had no such festivities.
“My wife and son were driving around Oak Park and River Forest looking for fireworks, and there were none,” Armstrong said. “I said to my wife in braggadocio fashion: `There will be fireworks in Oak Park next year if I have to put them on myself.'”
And so he did. For the next 25 years, Armstrong and his friends, calling themselves the Great American Lightshow Association Charitable Trust, put on a dazzling display every year, paying for it through donations collected from the crowd.
“It’s a real pay-as-you-go plan,” said Armstrong, an attorney. Each year, the company setting off the fireworks was paid only after the money was collected. And each year, community members pitched in just enough.
Armstrong said he stopped running the fireworks about five years ago, handing the reins over to a local newspaper and a bank. Now, he celebrates at home before heading out to watch the towns’ big party.
When he mingles with the crowd, most have no idea he was the mastermind behind the whole thing.
As the fireworks explode in Oak Park, a few miles south at FitzGerald’s, the bar will be quiet for the first time in days. The tavern, at 6615 Roosevelt Rd. in Berwyn, will have already wrapped up its annual four-day American Music Festival, now in its 24th year.
More Top Picks Nespresso Vertuoplus
Owner Bill FitzGerald started the festival in 1981 as a way to celebrate both the 4th of July and the country’s music. The first year, he booked just two bands–the bar’s regular jazz group and a then relatively unknown blues guitarist named Stevie Ray Vaughan. Now, the festival is a tradition, touting 36 bands and four stages, and drawing about 4,000 people.
Over the four days leading up to the 4th of July, FitzGerald’s will go through 850 cases and 50 kegs of beer, countless bratwurst and more than 1,000 bottles of water.
The FitzGerald family begins planning for the festival in January and spends about a week setting up the grounds.
“It’s just something that I’ve always enjoyed,” FitzGerald said. “I kind of already liked the idea of the 4th of July, classic town picnic that always features bands and barbecue.”
A family tradition
Not all celebrations this weekend will be massive. In Highland Park, Joan and Herb Loeb will host their annual 4th of July bingo party, now in its 42nd year.
The party, at their home, will attract about 60 friends and family members, a group that spans four generations.
Joan Loeb said the tradition actually began much earlier when her family lived in Hyde Park. Back then, when she was just a child, the family had a picnic each 4th of July in the park.
“When we moved to Highland Park, we decided that we would continue the tradition on our own,” she said.
The afternoon starts with outdoor games, then a group of friends cooks hamburgers and hot dogs. Always, there is an ample supply of red licorice on the table for dessert.
But the highlight is the bingo tournament, with the winners getting small prizes that Herb Loeb, 78, picks up at Kmart or Target.
Bob Rosenberg has been to the party since it began.
“My father has been the traditional bingo caller for a couple of decades,” said Rosenberg, 46. “I help him, and someday I’ll take over the bingo for him. We have been doing this forever.”
At 67, Frank Schweingruber recalls his many years in Evanston by remembering the 4th of July floats he worked on each summer.
For most years since 1974, he has built a float around his ’65 two-tone green Volkswagen Beetle. Construction generally begins in June. By the time he and other resident artists, children and helpers are done with it, the float is about 90 feet long, with trailer-like platforms pulled behind the car.
“I just think it’s a tremendous way for the neighborhood to do something together,” said Schweingruber. This year’s float is dedicated to Fred Rogers of the PBS television show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” playing off the city’s “Building Bridges to Friendship” theme.
Since retiring from computer programming last year, Schweingruber has even more time to buff, prime and paint his latest contraption. He talks about past parade characters with affection.
“I have a Cat in the Hat on my front porch that was in the parade twice now,” he said.
One year, the VW suffered a flat tire along the route, but Schweingruber kept driving until the tire practically shredded to the rim. He keeps the car, used in 22 parades, in his garage. It is driven only once a year–on July 4.
New traditions
But don’t be fooled: Independence Day is not merely the domain of the older crowd. Some of the younger set, like Christian Villalobos, 24, have forged their own traditions.
Villalobos organized his first Independence Day block party for the 3300 block of South Oakley Avenue six years ago because he wanted a day when residents could relax and share dishes on a street that is home to Latinos, Asians, a Russian woman and another from Poland.
About 100 people gathered last year, and Villalobos hopes for a bigger bash this time around. To ensure that happens, he has posted fliers at the corner market, hoping to attract other folks from his McKinley Park neighborhood.
As the crowd gathers, Villalobos will help grill the 30 pounds of meat his family bought, spin some dance music on his deejay equipment, and find time for the role he likes best–pressing palms and laughing with the neighbors.
“I try to keep everyone happy. I want to make sure everyone’s having a good time,” he said. “It just brings the whole community together.”
———-