Fourth of July celebrations abound across America, but few register as high on the authenticity meter as the annual patriotic hoedown in Geneva, Fla.
Geneva, population 2,940, is roughly 28 miles northeast of downtown Orlando, at the intersection of State Routes 46 and 426. Its claim to fame is being the final resting place for the skull of Lewis Thornton Powell, who was hanged as a conspirator in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
American Indians – Timucuan, and later Seminole tribes – inhabited the Geneva area until they were driven off during the Second Seminole War. White settlers began arriving from the North in the 1840s. Geneva’s enterprises were citrus and timber, and the town was a center for turpentine production from the late 1800s through the first two decades of the 20th Century.
These days, Geneva is the convenient commercial hub for local ranchers – meaning it has a post office, a couple of gas stations, a throw-back general store, a butcher shop, and a feed store. It’s also a pit stop for bikers, hunters and fishermen. Geneva residents typically are people who enjoy a quiet, rural lifestyle and don’t mind the commute into Orlando or its suburbs. Entertainment consists of square dancing at the Geneva Community Center and a monthly Bluegrass jam.
Nothing reflects Geneva’s unabashed country ethos more than its Fourth of July parade and picnic. It’s a day of time travel, back to an era when you knew your neighbors, kids roamed unfettered, and creativity was expressed freeform.
Everywhere you look, vignettes capture the town’s down-home essence. A carefully groomed horse, adorned with an Uncle Sam beard and stars-and-stripes top hat, prances down 1st Street. Barefoot children watch wide-eyed, ice cream dripping off their chins, and scramble for candy tossed from floats, Friends and strangers alike shed their inhibitions and kiss a pig, if only to elicit giggles from a child.
It’s tough to pin down when the tradition began, but long-time Genevans believe the Independence Day parade took root during the Baby Boom years after World War II. Beginning at 10:30 a.m., and initiated with a flyover by vintage aircraft, the procession makes a one-mile loop through town and lasts about 45 minutes. It features patriotic-themed floats created by neighborhood kids, social groups and service organizations; antique cars and tractors; fire engines and horse-drawn carts; and pretty much anyone who wants to march along and wave a flag.
But what separates this Fourth of July celebration from others, and gives it a distinctly homespun feel, is the Greater Geneva Grande Award Marching Band – a once-a-year, enthusiastic convergence of local musicians who conduct their sole rehearsal about an hour before the parade. If that’s not patriotism, nothing is.
The band’s concert, including a rousing rendition of the National Anthem, highlights the post-parade picnic. Spectators who lined 1st Street, or watched the parade from their front yards, migrate to the Geneva Elementary School parking lot to inspect the floats and vintage cars, or stake places in the area around the community center to enjoy food, music and games.
The fare is hot dogs, hamburgers, barbeque and ice cream, washed down with soda pop or iced tea. There’s a cakewalk in the community center, featuring baked goods from Geneva kitchens. Activities include pony rides, a cow chip toss and pig kissing (yes, you can win a prize for puckering up to live pork). If gambling is your pleasure, buy a square on the chicken grid. A fowl struts back and forth across the board, and if it deposits droppings on your square, you win.
Take time to tour the two-room Museum of Geneva History, where you’ll find prehistoric and Native American artifacts; pioneer crafts, furniture, mercantile goods, farm implements, vintage books and photos; and relics from Geneva’s turpentine industry. You can also get the scoop on Powell, who botched an attempt to kill William Seward, Lincoln’s Secretary of State.
After Powell and his fellow conspirators were hanged in 1865, their bodies were buried, exhumed, and reburied several times. At some point, an undertaker kept Powell’s skull as a souvenir. He donated it to the Smithstonian Institution, where it was discovered during an inventory of museum archives in 1992.
Powell’s only living relative turned out to be a Geneva resident, who arranged for the skull’s burial in the local cemetery. Hike about half a mile from the community center, to the end of Cemetery Road, and you can view Powell’s headstone, along with those of 16 other Civil War veterans.
Geneva’s Fourth of July festivities wind down by mid-afternoon – leaving plenty of time to rest up for fireworks in nearby Sanford or Oviedo, the perfect end to a memorably all-American Independence Day.
Dave Seanor, a Featured Contributor to Yahoo! Sports, has lived in Geneva since 1995 – experiencing mild culture shock following 20 years spent mostly in New York, Chicago and Detroit. He’s attended a handful of Geneva Fourth of July parades, but has yet to kiss a pig.
