Community Honors 250th
Participants carry the United States, Mississippi, Water Valley, America250 and 1976 Bicentennial flags to the Casey Jones Railroad Museum during Saturday’s Semiquincentennial celebration. The procession concluded with a display of the city’s recently recovered Bicentennial time capsule.
WATER VALLEY – Water Valley celebrated America’s 250th birthday Saturday with patriotic music, historic readings and a community procession honoring both the nation’s founding and the city’s Bicentennial heritage.
Hosted by Water Valley Odd Fellows Lodge No. 82 and the Water Valley Main Street Association, the Semiquincentennial celebration opened at Bozarts Gallery with the Pledge of Allegiance led by Terry Allen Jr., followed by a community singalong of the National Anthem. Mayor Tommy Reynolds then read the prayer offered before the First Continental Congress in 1774.
A group reading of the Declaration of Independence followed before April Hammons led the audience in “America the Beautiful.”
The program continued with readings from the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. Between the readings, attendees joined in patriotic songs. Effie Burt led “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before performing a solo of “What the World Needs Now.”
Following the program, participants carried the America250, United States, Mississippi, City of Water Valley and 1976 Bicentennial flags in a procession to the Casey Jones Railroad Museum, where the recently recovered Bicentennial time capsule and its contents were on display.
“I think everybody in our community was represented,” Reynolds said. “We’re all in this thing together.”
He said celebrations like Saturday’s help strengthen communities.
“We just need more things like that to bring us together,” Reynolds said.
Organizer James McCormick said he was especially pleased with the community’s participation, from the audience singalongs to the volunteers who shared in the readings and the young people who carried the flags to the museum.
The celebration concluded with the singing of “Happy Birthday” to America, birthday cake and fellowship among attendees.
McCormick also encouraged residents to become part of the community’s next chapter by contributing letters, photographs and other everyday items representing life in Water Valley today. Those items will be placed into the restored time capsule before it is resealed and reburied at City Hall later this year, where it will remain unopened until 2076.
