PATRIOTIC MUSIC: We hear there was a good crowd that attended Sunday’s Patriotic and Popular Music event Sunday at Crook Farm.

About 100 people listened to the show, along with the volunteers and band members, according to Harrijane Moore, a board member for the Bradford Landmark Society. The weather was beautiful, too, she tells us.

The music was courtesy of the Twin Tiers Community Band with conductor Diane Smith.

“It was a wonderful way to start the Fourth of July week,” Harrijane said.

Additionally, she said there was a “tremendous response” to the perennial sale that took place at Crook Farm prior to the show. Linda Brocius raised the plants and donated the proceeds to Bradford Landmark Society.

We’re glad to hear it.

INDEPENDENCE: Speaking of Fourth of July week, we have been celebrating the occasion for nearly 250 years.

The signing of the Declaration of Independence happened 245 years ago in 1776. The anniversary of the nation’s newfound freedom was celebrated with the first Independence Day on July 4, 1777.

In a letter to his wife, dated July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote that the nation’s independence “will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

July 4 is this Sunday.