HOPE, Indiana — As “Let Freedom Ring” plays from the event sound system, the aroma of fried fish lures a long line of people on the Hope Town Square. Kids impatiently dance in line as they wait for a balloon animal, and neighbors gather around picnic tables to enjoy a fresh lemon shake-up.
Organizers said about 2,000 people flocked to Hope for the 10th annual Old-Fashioned Independence Day, the last eight of which have been hosted by the Yellow Trail Museum.
Opening the event was a new tradition, naming of the inaugural Little Mr. Firecracker, Logan Downey, and Little Miss Sparkler, Miya Thompson.
After that business was taken care of, other children lined their Americana-decorated bicycles along the sidewalk on the outside edge of the square for the annual Kiddie Bicycle Parade.
Brock Harris and his wife Carrie led their one-year-old son Ian for the parade in a wagon bolstering, “When the West was 1.”
Harris, who was born and raised in Hope, is an Old-Fashioned Independence Day regular.
“We always come out to support the town,” Harris said.
Read the full story and see more photos in Sunday’s edition of The Republic.
