As long as we lived in Lincoln Park, we celebrated the 4th by meeting family friends on the back steps of the Chicago Historical Society for their “traditional” Independence Day celebration complete with a brass band playing Sousa marches, a few local pols making stump speeches on the back steps of the museum and a parade led by a man dressed up as Du Sable – complete with fake fur hat. Not the best clothing to wear on a day that temps usually reached ninety degrees!

Bicentennial 4th of July Celebration 1976 - Chicago Historical Society