My father always flew the flag on the fourth of July. And he made a sweet ceremony of it. He would hang it from the porch roof and step back, place his hand of his heart and recite the pledge ending with "God Bless America". He was very proud and happy to be an American citizen. He said that Ireland was a wonderful country but the United States was the greatest country in the world.
George M Cohan wrote some wonderful patriotic songs at the time like;"I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy", "It's a Grand Old Flag" and "Over There" (well that was WWI but they were still singing it in WWII). Mom and Dad were pleased to no end by the fact that Cohan was Irish. When another Irishman, James Cagney played Cohen in the movie "Yankee Doodle Dandy" they were delighted.
The fourth was celebrated very modestly then. In Huntington they would have a pageant at the town hall depicting some events of the revolution. I think John may have portrayed George Washington at lest once. In Elyria there was a parade down Main Street. Some times we wrapped crepe paper around the spokes of our bikes and got in the parade. Anybody could join. People would tie a ribbon around their dog or push their decorated strollers in the parade. We didn't have any fancy floats but there would be a queen.
During the war there were no fireworks of course because of shortages. All the fireworks were overseas. In the parade there would be a contingent of gold star mothers, those mothers who had lost a son in the war. They would march with gold sashes across their chest. The men would take off their hats and the children would get quiet and look solemn. Everyone who had a son in the war would hang a blue star in their front window. If you had a son who died it was a gold star, one for each son.
Perhaps some Mom wouldn't even have the day off because she were working at a defense plant and had to keep the war effort going. There would be no stores open on Sundays or Holidays except for the drugstores because of Sunday "blue laws" which were in effect at that time.
After the war there were fireworks at the high school stadium and Pat always managed to get his hands on some cherry bombs and firecrackers. People didn't have cookouts there were no fancy barbecue grills although we would have had hotdogs and potato salad, deviled eggs, pickles and ice cream. I suppose the politician made speeches at the town square but I was too young to pay much attention to that action.
I can't think of anything special about the way we celebrated except that the flag was very important. Every National holiday it went up and we were all taught how to take it down without letting it touch the ground and how to fold it into a triangle by my very patriotic father.