Fulks Run Celebrates Forty Four Years of July 4th Celebrations
July, children are out of school and hopefully they are enjoying their summer break. I have always thought that a sad thing would be when a child does not have a happy childhood, and summer the best time of their childhood. This should be the best time in their lives, and I hope that is true for most. Now what is the answer to the June jingle? In the valley of the… Did you remember? The answer is “In the valley of the Jolly Ho Ho Ho Green Giant.!” Had a picture of a Green Giant with his hands on his hips overlooking his fields, which with some changes is still used today. This jingle started in the early 60’s and inspired a song with the title The Jolly Green Giant by the Kingsmen. The song gained the number one sport in Canada and rose to number four in the US. In 1973 General Mills added his little green buddy as his helper. The helper’s name is Sprout. The jingle was also used in the 1950’s, but instead of the giant, the ad featured a puppet.
The July jingle mystery is “Sometimes you feel like………finish the jingle and, the answer will be in August Issue.
I want to share some of the history of our community. July 4th, 2025, will be the 45th anniversary of the first July 4th Celebration in Fulks Run. This year will be the 44th event because of that terrible Covid virus was a year the event was cancelled. The first year the yard sale spots were behind the Fulks Run Grocery because the new park was not yet purchased, but there was plenty of room for it was only five-yard salers. They set up under a large tree where the entrance to the ham house is today, and the croquet course was yet to be built. As you drive by only a large stump now remains of the tree. Once we had the large park to advertise the event, we watched the Daily New Record and under Yard Sale Events. It listed the upcoming yard sales in the area with addresses. Cammie wrote letters to nearly 300 people from this list, telling them about our yard sale. The phase “Needed buyers and sellers for the Fulks Run Annual July 4th yard sale” The rest is history.
A Horseshoe Pitch Tournament was held at the old park with a dozen or more participants, but competition was fierce because one of the pitchers was Reverend Golden Gaither who competed at the state champion level at horseshoe pitching.
To the best of my knowledge, 1980 was the first time that Fulks Run ever experienced a professional grade fireworks display. I use the term professional loosely because the individuals that were in charge had absolutely no previous experience in this field. The requirement was to obtain a permit from Rockingham County and to have a Deputy on site along with Fire and Rescue. We called on a local deputy from Bergton, and we were ready to go. Also, there was a softball tournament held at the Fulks Run Elementary School with trophies to the top two winners, but it was a pickup tournament, not organized teams and for fun. It gave all an opportunity to participate. Some years there was as many as 50 individuals of all ages that played.
Of course, there was Bar-B-Que Chicken. We started with 900 halves, and because of the demand for Fulks Run Chicken, an addition was built to the pit to hold an additional 300 halves. One forth of July the club did two turns and with assistance from the Timberville Fire Dept Bar-B-Que Pit that year we sold over 3000 halves of chicken, and for the first time had enough chicken to make it to lunch. Also, food started at 6:00 AM with sausage egg and cheese sandwiches and after 100’s of eggs was served up, the switch was made to burgers, fried bologna, hot dogs and fried Turner Ham.
I do want to tell you more about the Fireworks. The club ordered those from Ohio. The first year the total cost was nearly $1000.00 This included 5 steel tubes approximately 32 inches long. The difference was diameter. Three were three 3” tubes one 4” and the big boy 5”. We dug a hole and placed approximately one foot of the tube in the ground with the tube placed at a slight angle. We then slid the charge down the tube, and the fuse laid on the outside of the tube. Light the fuse and get your head out of the way. Keep in mind these charges consisted of a round package with a flat bottom of highly explosive of gun powder. This was dangerous, and one year a charge didn’t come out of the tube cleanly. It didn’t obtain the height and came down in the crowd. As it was coming down the crowd separated like a parting of water, and when it hit the ground they stumped out the sparks and filled in the ranks ready to watch the next shot. The only injuries were a few minor burns from the sparks. The worst injury ever to occur was when a 3” charge was fired along with two colored charges. The colored charges exploded, but the report charge failed to go off. Someone in our group (excluding profanies) said where that thing go? A second later I heard a flutter above my head and the instinct to grab my head and bend over helped for that charge hit me square on my right shoulder blade. In certain types of weather, I am still reminded of that experience when I move my arm a certain way. Another year we purchased an American Flag display when fully lit it displayed the flag in brilliant flaming colors. It was attached to the softball backstop at the school. One problem with that was we set the backstop on fire. Somewhat embarrassing.
I want to tell you this, it takes a lot of people that will work to pull this off. A lot of work goes into this and look what this event has become. Some years as many as 150-yard Salers participated. For obvious reasons, when we obtained the new park, we hired a real professional company. But the cost was over $4500.00, pretty steep, but with the turnout and food sales we were still able to make a profit. But after a few years the demand for fireworks became so great that to sponsor a show on the fourth of July a minimum of $10,000.00 was needed. The club couldn’t justify working from 2:00 AM till 10:00 PM and lose $5000.00. That is the story of the end of the fireworks.
Any comments email fulksrunfollies@gmail.com
Remember Fulks Run Ruritans Lawn Party July 24th-26th
Believe it or not
Until Next Time
Ronnie
