Capital Celebration of Freedom

By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 5, 2008

Three times in the past four years, the forces of nature have added their own special effects -- rain, wind and sometimes lightning -- to the traditional Fourth of July celebration on the Mall. Last night it happened again, with repeated drenchings that forced people to seek shelter under trees, in museums and even inside trash bags.

By the time rockets began to explode above the Mall in searing colors to the last few brain-rattling notes of Jerry Lee Lewis singing "Great Balls of Fire," the rain had tapered off and the crowd was cheering its victory over the elements. "It has not dampened our spirits, right?" actor Jimmy Smits, the master of ceremonies, said at the start of the show. "Noooo!" thousands shouted.

Across the region, parades, concerts and commemorations filled the day. Celebrants carried umbrellas and ponchos, but most places stayed dry until evening.

Some spectators said they came to Washington instead of taking longer holiday trips to avoid high gasoline prices, and many who came to the area from far away said they were worried about the cost. Mike White, 25, was ready for the fireworks show last night after driving from Atlanta with his wife, Michelle, to be best man at a wedding today in Alexandria. The cost of the trip was something he preferred not to think about.

"It makes a big difference, and in any other circumstances I wouldn't have come," he said.

Some celebrators said they intentionally sought revelry close to home. Terri Mongelli, 51, of Frederick, often spends the Fourth of July weekend on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Yesterday, she was at a midday parade at Leisure World, the sprawling retirement community in Silver Spring, where her father lives.

"The gas prices are really bad," Mongelli said. "That just hurts. So I'm really trying to limit and combine our trips."

Mike King drove to the Mall with his family from South Carolina. "We only had to buy one tank to get here," said King, who drives a diesel truck and said he paid about $5 a gallon for fuel.

The Willis family of Troy, Ohio, traveled 8 1/2 hours by car late Thursday for a weekend getaway to Winchester and Shenandoah National Park. Despite rising gas prices, a broken GPS navigation system and a rainy forecast, the family decided to head to the Mall, where showers came just before 6 p.m.

"We bought the ponchos in Troy, " said Helen Willis, as her husband, Jerry, and son John huddled under the blue plastic. "We were told we probably didn't need them. I'm glad I didn't believe the forecasters."

The Nguyen family of Chantilly took their first trip to the Mall yesterday, 10 years after emigrating from Vietnam. They caught the afternoon parade, and then the rain caught them. By 5:30 p.m., the family was decked out in FBI-logo shirts, American flag bandanas and flag-emblazoned umbrellas as they ate a homemade Vietnamese dinner out of takeout boxes.

"We finally got a day off of work to come out here," Allison Nguyen said. "Too bad it's raining."

Metro trains, doubled for the incoming fireworks fans, were running smoothly. People filed into the Mall through four entrances with metal detectors.

As the evening rain turned to a steady downpour about 7:30, families congregated under a patch of cherry trees and in makeshift tents; scores of others headed for exit gates along Constitution Avenue.

Elaine Naleski, 62, said she had driven to Washington from Colorado Springs, Colo., with her husband, Kip. When it started to pour, they headed for the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and bought, for $5 each, thin blue ponchos. Passersby asked where they got them.

The Easter family drove from Burlington, N.C., yesterday, after watching a local fireworks show near their home Thursday night. "They were really lame," Suzanne Easter said of the pyrotechnics.

Easter, 40, said she was determined that her children would see the real thing, and they waited in excitement as darkness fell. They had visited the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, where Dylan, 6, had an American flag painted on his face and his sister Taylor, 10, had her face decorated with images of fireworks.

"Your kids are only so old so long," said their father, Shawn Easter, 42. We wanted to make it a special vacation, and what better way to do that than by coming here for July Fourth?"

The Spinelli family, eight adults and five children, improvised when the series of short but strong showers threatened to drive them home. A box of black trash bags was bought at a nearby drug store, and everyone donned the makeshift rain gear. John Spinelli of Springfield asked his wife, Colleen, whether she was comfortable. "I'll let you know when I see the traffic on the way home," she said.

There was some drizzle during the fireworks, particularly during Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture," but the crowd stayed with the performance. "It was awesome," said Kunal Amrut, 26, a graduate student at Howard University. "My ears were beating. It was loud, but it was good."

Soprano Harolyn Blackwell, a D.C. native, opened the concert with "The Star-Spangled Banner," and American Idol winner Taylor Hicks electrified the crowd with a jazzed-up rendition of "This Land Is Your Land." After the concert ended, people on their way home waited in a 500-foot-long line to get into the Capital South Metro Station. Stations north of the Mall were less crowded.

Earlier in the day at Leisure World, hundreds of residents and their relatives donned their finest Uncle Sam suits, American flag hats, and red, white and blue pompoms for the annual parade of seniors. Some drove antique cars, others rode in convertibles, and a handful of women danced atop a red fire engine. A few participants paraded with their walkers.

But many drove in golf carts. They awoke early to decorate the carts with Americana tinsel and flags. Some blared patriotic music from boomboxes in their carts and tossed candy to the onlookers lining the parade route.

In the District, the Palisades parade drew a host of politicians. And it was not just gas prices that drove people to line up along MacArthur Boulevard, it was pure tradition. The 42nd annual Fourth of July event was an all-American melting pot that was part old-fashioned parade and part political rally, sprinkled with Halloween and Mardi Gras.

As always, anybody could be in the parade. Children on bikes, on foot, in elaborately decorated cars and in wagons pulled by sweaty parents joined the traditional politicians, marching bands and grand marshal, Teddy, the bobble-headed President Theodore Roosevelt who races at Washington Nationals games.

Olivia Nash, 10, said she and her sister Caroline, 7, had planned to be in the parade with "a float called the all-American dogs."

"We were going to get all our friends dogs and my dad was going to get a convertible, but we couldn't get it together this year," said Olivia, a little disappointed but enthusiastic about next year's possibilities.

Staff writers Michael Birnbaum, James Hohmann, Ben Hubbard, Derek Kravitz, Michael Laris, Philip Rucker, Kameel Stanley, Nikita Stewart and Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.