Sixty Years Later, ‘The Spirit Of 76’ Still Comes Alive On The Fourth Of July

     On a July 4 morning a few years after the end of World War II, a group of young men, longtime summer friends, were sitting around talking and decided there should be a parade.
     It was 1948, and the tiny parade comprised about 20 people, including DeWitt C. Jones III, Charles (Shanghai) Goodwin III, Freelon Morris Jr., and E. Kent Swift Jr., dressed as the characters in the famous painting by Archibald MacNeal Willard, “The Spirit of ‘76,” that commemorates independence and depicts marching musicians on parade, playing fife and drums during the Revolutionary War.
     Marchers in that first Quissett July 4 parade wore paper soldier hats made of newspaper and marched from Quissett all the way to Woods Hole, recalled Mr. Jones’s father, DeWitt Jones Jr., in an essay in The Book of Falmouth.
     Sixty years later, the Fourth of July Quissett Parade is still going strong. Two of the young men who started it are still living and are more than 75 years old now. Mr. Swift died last year and Mr. Goodwin, who always carried the flag during the July 4 parade, died on April 1. Their children and grandchildren are carrying on the tradition.
     This year, leading the Quissett parade were Freelon Morris III and E. Kent Swift III.
     DeWitt C. (Dick) Jones III and his wife, Megan, of Siders Pond Road, Falmouth, held court as Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Quissett, sitting in the back of a red pickup truck.
     Mr. Jones’s father, DeWitt Jones Jr. and mother, Peggy, were “elected” Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Quissett at the reception of his sister Molly’s wedding in 1947. Mr. Jones Jr. handed the mantle of Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress over to Mr. Morris and his wife, Frances, for a number of years, Megan Jones said.
     “There were a few other mayors in-between,” Megan Jones said, before the mantle was handed back to the Jones family, to DeWitt III and Megan Jones, in the 1970s. “And we’ve been doing it ever since,” Ms. Jones said.
     The Quissett band, a group that rehearses just once a year before parade day, played lively renditions of classic marching tunes.
     The Quissett dragon, with a large red, white, and blue papier mache head and over 120 feet of red, white, and blue material carried by dozens of helpers, followed. The dragon was constructed 40 years ago by Stephen P. Chalmers of McCallum Drive, Falmouth. There are the usual children riding on, and in, all manner of bicycles, carriages, and wagons, and several antique cars, including a 1931 Ford “Woody” wagon, in which David Barry of Hingham served as chauffeur for his mother-in-law, Ruth B. Burrough of Landfall, Falmouth, and other family members. Ms. Burrough’s late husband, Bud, restored the wagon and owned it for 63 years.
     Other longtime customs at the Quissett event are the shooting off of various cannons.
     Following the tradition of his father, Freelon Morris Jr. shoots off a historic brass cannon at 8 o’clock on the morning of July 4. Several other privately owned cannons are fired off during the day.
     There are usually a few political statements at the Quissett Parade, and this year was no different.
     One group of cousins, siblings, and friends, Hannah Garfield, 11, Grace Brakeman, 11, Emma Garfield, 11, Benjamin Garfield, 9, and Noah Garfield, calling themselves the “Go Green Group,” made ecologically friendly costumes, asking viewers to “Shut Off the Lights.”
     Friends and family of the Joneses were carrying signs about the Beijing Olympics, but they were wearing surgical masks, a comment on the air quality in Beijing.
     “They’ve been doing a topical tableau for years,” Ms. Jones said.
     The group from Racing Beach, holding a banner stating the area was “established in 1621,” included dozens of mostly summer residents wearing matching “Uncle Sam” hats.
     This year’s parade was dedicated to Mr. Goodwin, who donated the flagpole that sits in front of the Quissett Association’s Harbor House. After the parade, Mr. Jones gave a speech about Mr. Morris to a crowd of parade spectators and participants who gathered on the Harbor House’s expansive lawn overlooking Quissett Harbor.