July 4th Celebrations
A bicycle race on
the 4th at the Pacolet Mills
Ballpark probably around 1946 or 1947. Please let us
know if you can identify anyone in this photo.
The biggest community celebration,
up until the late 1950’s, was for the 4th of July. This
was held at the Ballpark
and lasted all day. Almost everyone that was able,
attended. The main attraction was the big barbecue
dinner that was held under the big oaks.
Men started preparing the hundreds of pounds of meat the
night before. Long pits were dug in the ground. Hickory
wood was burned in these pits until a big pile of coals
were left. The hogs were slowly cooked over the coals
all night. Also, there were several huge black iron pots
that were used to cook the special hash that seemed to
be unique to the Upstate. Click on More Photos to see additional
pictures of preparing the barbecue and the July 4th
activities.
The smell of the cooking meat perfumed the air for
hundreds of yards from the ballpark. Hundreds of people
lined up for the delicious meal about noon on the 4th.
There were all sorts of activities planned for the
folks, particularly the children. There were foot races,
a greased pig contest and all sorts of other
competitions. One popular event was trying to climb a
tall, greased pole with a sum of money on top. The first
one to climb to climb it could claim the money. (About 1949, one of the
events was a “guinea fowl chase”. Amidst a great deal
of noise, about 15 or 20 guineas were turned loose to
be caught by the boys and some men. Most were caught
but a few flew over the fence and escaped. One of them
made the mistake of appearing at our house in a day or
so and making a loud commotion. We lived about a half
mile from the ball park. The wayward guinea was
promptly shot by my Dad or Grand Dad and made a tasty
meal.)
Later in the afternoon, there would be a baseball game between the
Pacolet Trojans and one of its rivals like
Lockhart or Drayton.
July 4th had been celebrated from the early days of the
mill village. One account from 1894 is shown below.
The celebrations were still being held in the company
pasture in 1920 as shown by the story below.
More photographs of a July 4th celebration are shown in
the story about the Baseball
Park.
This web site has
been started as a public service to share the story of
Pacolet.