By Karen Hall

Editor

After their traditional Fourth of July fireworks show was washed out by rain, the Chapel Hill Board of Mayor and Aldermen decided to hold the show on Aug. 31, and celebrate both Labor Day and the end of all the town's indebtedness.

The last note owed, $15,700 for water lines, was paid to CB&S Bank earlier this summer, said Recorder Dawn Lovins. In the last 10 years the town has paid off $500,000 of indebtedness, and now operates on a cash basis, said Administrator Mike Hatten.

The fire hall has been paid off, the community center purchased, the town hall has been enlarged and remodeled, and a new public works shop has been built. Chapel Hill has its own water and sewer systems. Financially, Chapel Hill is in the top 3 percent of municipalities who own infrastructure, according to the University of Tennessee's Municipal Technical Advisory Service.

So, to celebrate, Saturday evening the town served hot dogs, chips, and drinks to a crowd of townspeople in the pavilion by the ballfields. Other people arrived as it was getting dark and watched from their vehicles as the fireworks soared into the sky in front of Forrest's football stadium. When the party started at 6 p.m. on one of the hottest and muggiest afternoons of the summer, it looked like hardly anybody would show up, but as the sun set, more and more people arrived. In the end, 400 hot dogs were served.

The fireworks began soon after 8 p.m., presented by Michael Head of Petersburg. He's been doing Chapel Hill's fireworks shows for seven or eight years now.

"This is the first time we haven't done it on the Fourth," Head said, who was glad they hadn't tried to do a show in the rain. "If we had gone ahead, it wouldn't have been a good show."

Conditions were perfect Saturday, and the show was spectacular. State law states spectators have to be a minimum of 285 feet away from where professional fireworks are being lighted, and at this distance, the senses are overwhelmed by light, color and noise. There would be 120 shells in the air for the finale of the 15-20 minute show, Head promised, and he was right -- it was amazing.

People who celebrated the first Labor Day on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882, would have felt right at home, since food and fireworks played a part on that occasion also.

According to Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac," the first Labor Day holiday was the idea of the Central Labor Union in New York City, which organized a parade and a picnic featuring speeches by union leaders. It was intended to celebrate labor unions and to recognize the achievements of the American worker. On that first Labor Day, 20,000 workers crowded the streets in a parade up Broadway. They carried banners that said, "Labor creates all wealth" and "Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for recreation!" After the parade, people held picnics all over the city. When it got dark, fireworks went off over the skyline. The celebrations became more popular across the country in the next 10 years. In 1894, Congress made Labor Day a national holiday.