Durham, NH, July 4, 1995

Highway 108 to Newmarket makes a sharp left just after you enter Durham. The town offices are on the left. Lynne was clever enough to purchase our Fourth of July dinner tickets on July 3rd there. Tickets were sold out when we got to the picnic.


Just after the town offices is the Oyster River. The sign speaks for itself. New Englanders commemorate their early events in this way all over the area.

This is the Oyster River today, flowing into Great Bay. The boats you see barely in the water sit on mud flats at low tide. This is to the left of the road; to the right of the road is a spillway. Seagulls line up there, presumably waiting for fish to wash by.

The Durham Fourth of July picnic was held at the UNH playing fields. This flag flew on a flag pole that must have been fifty feet high. Notice the number of stars - I wonder if they still had this flag from 1958?

Music was provided by the Oasis, a steel drum band. Dinner was barbequed chicken. We ate on the bleachers overlooking the baseball field. Lynne's father played ball on that field when he was at UNH. After dinner, there were three-legged races. They also had balloons and face painting.

You can visit the UNH Web Site.

The Smokey Bear mobile display was set up on the track around the football field at UNH. A sign on the end of the display stated that it had first started traveling August 1, 1993, has traveled 31,000 miles, and has visited 17 states and 71 functions.

The display included hundreds of items. The original Smokey Bear poster shown here was one of probably fifty posters and there were hundreds of buttons and other memorabilia.

At 8:30 that night, Lucy and Dick set out for the fireworks display at UNH. We parked across the road, and sat in the car to avoid the mosquitoes. The fireworks started at 9:20 and lasted until 9:50. It took a good 20 minutes to get back on the highway to Newmarket. We took some photos, but the color was disappointing.