Thursday, July 5, 2012

Our 4th of July City

The 4th of July has come and gone again in Seward, the "U.S. Small Town 4th of July City". According to the media, we again had 40,000 visitors to our city of 7,000 people. The size of the crowd is determined by statistical and historic techniques. Years ago  Nebraska Governor Exon and  Congressman Bereuter were successful in achieving Congressional action to get our esteemed  title. Near-by City Wilber had been designated "The Czech Capitol of Nebraska" about the same time. As I've heard the story, Clark Kolterman who has been the driving force behind the celebration for the past 25 years, was anxious to have a larger crowd for our celebration than did Wilber. So he took their attendance, doubled it and reported the number as our record crowd. That was years ago and each year we seem to have more people here than the year before so the number in expanded to recognize the increase. Hence, the story behind our number of 40,000 visitors in town. Many of them watched the "Grand Parade" where John Deere tractors replaced Czech Queens, Model A Fords, & Fire Trucks this year for having the greatest number of entries and a good time was had by all. 

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