Local & State Headlines

Celebration of Independence

• Southwest Georgians celebrate Independence Day with a bang as the city holds its annual fireworks show.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — Albany attracted people from across the nation as residents and visitors celebrated the nation’s 232nd birthday Friday.

From family reunions to solo outings, Southwest Georgians explored Albany’s venues as they sought how to celebrate the Fourth of July.

The Watts family held a reunion beginning Friday at the Parks at Chehaw — the first that any of the family members could remember.

The reunion came at the request of the late Berman James Watts, who asked that the family have a reunion whether he could be there or not, said Sharran Watts Nelson, who was one of the chief organizers of the reunion.

“We had an uncle that passed in February. He wanted a family reunion,” she said. “He said he wanted a family reunion whether he was here or not.”

After he passed, she said, she began working on the family reunion, which brought about 75 relatives from Florida, Virginia and Mississippi to Albany for the weekend.

Marvin Watts, who was the second oldest at the reunion at age 62, said the family got an early start Friday morning grilling out at the park, where they planned to stay for the day.

“Oh yeah, we’re enjoying it. (But) it would be nice if we had a big roof with some air conditioning,” he said, drawing out the word “big” and stretching his hand out for emphasis. “But they say when you got lemons, make lemonade.”

Many of the families spent the day getting to know each other better, and will continue doing so today, he said.

Other families made a trek — albeit somewhat shorter — to the Good Life City as well for the holiday.

Larry Jackson, with his wife and four children, made their way from Sylvester to visit the park, where he manned a grill and hit a softball out to two of his daughters and his son.

“They like to chase the ball,” he said, taking a break from his fatherly duty.

He said the family was planning to grill out for lunch, then take a break and drive back to Sylvester (while they were there he would leave the leftovers in the refrigerator) and then come back to Albany for the fireworks show Friday night.

“What we do is go back and regroup and come back to see the lights,” he said.

Sylvester resident Stephen Massey said he and his family — wife, three children and his parents — decided to come to the Parks at Chehaw for the day too so he could bring his children to the zoo.

“We brought the babies and the grandbabies out here to take them to the zoo and let them play,” he said, his parents sitting at a picnic table a few feet away while his children played on the playground at the park.

“They’re excited about going to the zoo and seeing the animals,” his mother, Cindy Sexton, said.

Later in the afternoon, visitors began trickling into downtown Albany for the city’s celebration, which ended with a colorful fireworks show.

Vendors lined the streets and kids played in the water fountain in front of the Flint RiverQuarium in the 90-degree heat.

Albany resident Leonard Diaz said he spent the day selling clothes and other items at the Flint River Flea Market, but made his way downtown about 5 p.m. to see what the city had going on.

“I just wanted to see what was going on down here,” he said.

He said he planned to get together with friends later in the evening for some beer and ribs.

The city’s fireworks show, which organizers said cost about $20,000 in fireworks, was scheduled to begin at 9:30 p.m.

Police patrolled the area and an emergency unit was set up at the Broad Street bridge for anybody in need of medical attention.

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