RED, WHITE, BLUE, AND GOLD: "Homespun" is a word we hear a lot around Thanksgiving and Christmas, two holidays when nostalgia and a wayback feeling reign. We want the same pecan pie Grandma made and to warble the same carols by the piano and to see the same TV specials, again and again. But the Fourth of July has a lot of that time-travel-y connection, too. Consider how songs like "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "America the Beautiful" and the other classics we revisit on Independence Day were likely sung in our grade school classrooms, and the grade school classrooms of our parents and grandparents, too.
Likewise, a parade that has a few sweet horses and a few floats and a few vintage cars, the kind with the funny horn honks and great grills, also can take us back to the patriotic celebrations of decades past, the ones we attended or heard about from our mom or grandfather. Finding those festivities of yore, the ones that are a bit smaller in scale but brimming with authentic sweetness, isn't that hard, though, if you know where to look. One of the most colorful spots for a hometown Fourth procession is Julian, but that's not the only history-tinged party the mountain town has on the horizon.
GOLD RUSH DAYS... clip-clops like a pretty pony, into view, over the final weekend in June. San Diego's "first and only gold rush" happened in this higher elevation town, a town that saw many lively characters pass through in the late 1800s. Some of those prospectors will return, and the spirit of the search, on Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28. Historical happenings, gold-panning, and various windows on the not-so-long-ago past will fill the still-atmospheric byways of the burg.
FOURTH OF JULY PARADE: The bunting and flags will be out along Main Street and the marching bands and handsome horses, too. The 2014 parade was canceled due to a July 3 fire, and organizers promise an extra-celebratory scene for the 2015 gathering. Want to grab some curb and enjoy Julian apple pie post-parade, a dish that's quintessentially American? This is your happy, homespun scene.
