NASHUA — For Kathy Vaillancourt, the Fourth of July is about reminiscing on the old days.

A Londonderry resident now, she visits the Manchester Street neighborhood where she spent her youth to watch the Independence Day fireworks.

“I like to walk around and look at the old houses and, 'Oh, this friend lived here, ,and that one lived there,'” Vaillancourt said. “We'd sit in our yard just like everybody's doing now, watching the Fourth of July and all the great memories.”

The day's patriotic music is especially meaningful — “The Star-Spangled Banner'' and “God Bless America.''

“It puts a lump in your throat sometimes, don't you think?”

Eighteen-year-old Shawn Murray was across the street at Holman Stadium's park, making his way back and forth across a tight rope. Murray said his best friend — the guy he'd spend the Fourth with every year — was away with the Air Force.

“We're always here for the fireworks,” Murray said, “but it's all about what it means — being an American, getting opportunities to go to college. I'm going to nursing school, and I wouldn't get that opportunity anywhere else and that's because of all this.”

As dusk began to settle, people filled the grasses outside Holman Stadium to take in the bursts and booms and explosions of the night.

Ernie Evans, an auto mechanic who spread out a blanket with his wife and children, said Independence Day is about everything his forefathers fought for.

“For me it's about my independence from being ruled by others,” Evans said. “I have the right to be free, I have the right to make my own decisions, and I have the right to choose my own government. My forefathers didn't have that privilege.”

Evans said we still haven't reached the utopic visions of the early founders, but it's getting close.

Asked what the fireworks symbolize, he said they remind him of all the battles fought. “I see the fireworks as an expression of allegiance. Being true to your country and defending it against foreigners.”

Evans said he recently served on a grand jury, something he called the greatest honor he could ever have and a profoundly patriotic duty.

“I don't have to rely on a king or a regime to tell me what somebody should be punished with. Leaving it up to a jury of your peers, that's the foundation of the Constitution.”

Doug Murray used the holiday to reflect on the country's beginnings. It wasn't all tri-cornered hats and waist britches, he said.

“We had a lot of successful businessmen, succesfull farmers, successful shopkeepers. They had just escaped this very heavy-handed central government, and they were suddenly free to pursue all of their various interests.”

Murray said the key to America's early success was the free enterprise system; something many have forgotten over the two ensuing centuries.

“We're drawn towards more and more heavy centralize government, and we've forgotten where we started.”

For Murray, looking to a central authority for sustenance is the very reason the early Americans left England to found a new nation. And some are repeating that trend.

“I think we focus on the government as something to feed us, as opposed to a small vehicle as we feed ourselves and feed one another and develop our own skills.”

Instead, Murray spoke for self reliance, and the reliance on friends and neighbors.

But the festivities of the moment weren't lost on Murray, who arrived on his Harley to enjoy the pyrotechnics.

“We also celebrate being alive,” he said with a grin. “I see the hot dog vendor over there, and there's nothing less healthy than a hot dog, but damn does it feel good!”

“July 4th is celebrating the stuff that we have — and the way that we are.”

srios@newstote.com