We just completed our annual Fourth of July sacrifice of more than $200 in fireworks for the benefit of our grandchildren and some visitors from a state where such shenanigans aren’t allowed.
The finale was a device called “Kooky Caterpillar,” which shot crackling sparks of vivid colors out of various orifices, whistled loudly and concluded its death dance with two red glowing eyes. I think it cost us $20 and the entire display lasted for 45 seconds. But the giggles and laughs from our grandchildren and visitors was worth it.
It made me wonder about what Fourth of July Celebrations were like in our town decades ago, so I looked up “Fourth of July” celebrations in Las Cruces on Newspapers.com.
Most entries were rather mundane, proclaiming that Independence Day activities would feature large displays of fireworks and that there was an upcoming election of a “Fourth of July Queen” in Mesilla.
But one article from the July 3, 1940, edition of the Las Cruces Sun-News caught my attention. The headline was “Blue Army Will Defend Cruces In 4th Battle.”
“Las Cruces will be defended by approximately 800 troops of the Blue army under the command of Col. Allen Fletcher against the Fourth of July blitzkrieg of an opposing army attacking on his flank at 9 a.m. tomorrow,” according to the lead paragraph in the story.
It appears that the battle was a mock attack staged to help prepare R.O.T.C. students from “State College” (Now New Mexico State University) for wartime duties as the nation began engaging in World War II.
The article said the students “have a special reason for putting up a hard fight, even though they fall in the tactics.” I interpreted that to mean that the students were pre-designated to be on the losing end of the mock battle.
The opposing and presumptive winning “army” was under the command of Col Cleveland C. Gee, an R.O.T.C. instructor from Fort Logan, Colorado. Fort Logan was an army base just southwest of Denver which was closed following World War II.
The article notes that the troops from Fort Logan had been spending several days in training at Fort Bullis in Texas, while the local boys trained at the “Dona Ana Target Range.”
The story said that the majority of the “fighting” would take place on the south end of downtown Las Cruces on Main Street.
Citizens were warned to keep their distance from the mock battle, since there would be guns fired with blanks.
“There are no balls,” Col Fletcher told the Sun-News. “But there is a wad. No one could be badly injured, but could be painfully hurt if a wad were to strike them.”
The article said smoke bombs were to be used during the mock battle, and Col Fletcher warned that “if a black smoke suddenly appears, there is no reason to call out the fire department.”
I suspect the smoke from our single “Kooky Caterpillar” was significantly more intense than that what was disbursed in downtown Las Cruces on the Fourth of July, 1940.
aero-cordero.com 