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When I was growing up, Fourth of July was as special to me as Christmas.

We would get up extra early to do the chores - i.e. milking cows, feeding calves and bum lambs, turning the sheep and cows into the proper pastures - followed by eating breakfast, washing dishes and packing a picnic lunch to take with us. Everyone would climb into the pickup, and my dad would drive to Steamboat. We would get there at about 10 a.m., find a parking place and walk along the sidewalk on Lincoln to the F.M. Light & Sons store. I don't know why, but that is where we always would watch the parade.

The parade would begin at 10:30 a.m., and the usual front of the parade would be the local politicians, either in a car or on horseback. Also leading the parade would be the VFW Honor Guard with the flags, riding their beautiful saddle horses. The floats would follow, which included 4-H clubs, Rainbow Girls, and various clubs such as the Elks and Masons.

Somewhere would be the Steamboat Springs Ski Band. They would be on skis with rollers attached underneath. My parents would be busy talking to people they had not seen since the previous year. They had lived in Hayden, Steamboat and Oak Creek, and my dad had worked on all the main ranches, so they knew many of the residents of Routt County. After the parade, people would disperse to go to their homes, to their friends' homes in Steamboat or to the park.

We were park people and would go there after picking up a watermelon at the local grocery store. People would walk the park talking to one another and getting caught up on all the news from one end of the county to the other. Women would shake out a tablecloth and place covered bowls of fried chicken, coleslaw and potato salad on it. The watermelon would go in the creek that ran through the park to cool off.

Thermoses of iced tea or lemonade would be emptied into glasses and drunk by children running through the grass and trees.

Families would sit around the picnic cloth eating huge plates of food. When the food was gone, a sack of cookies would remain for munching, and the watermelon would be pulled from the creek, sliced open, wedges cut, served and eaten with the hands.

At 1 p.m., everyone would head to the rodeo grounds. The loudspeaker would be playing what we called rodeo music. I don't know what type of music it really was. At 1:30, everyone would rise and recite the Pledge Of Allegiance, followed by the singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

The afternoon would be non-stop bareback and saddleback bucking horses, bull-riding, calf roping, team roping and horse racing. All the spectators knew all the rodeo participants because they were friends, neighbors or family. In the middle of the afternoon, my brother, sister and I were allowed to go buy one soft drink. I always chose the orange soda and sipped it slowly to make it last a long time.

The rodeo ended at 5 p.m., and everyone would go climb in their pickup truck to head home to do the chores, milking the cows, collecting the sheep, feeding the calves and the bum lamps before eating dinner and washing the dishes.

For many years, during the evening, the main street in Steamboat would be closed off, and there would be street square dancing. Some families would go back to town for this. In the later years, a lighted skier would come down Howelsen Hill on artificial snow followed by fireworks.

On July 5, it was back to ranching as usual.

Kathryn Roll

North Hollywood, Calif.