Marash Boy's Fourth of July

There was only one Fourth of July for Marash Boy; all others paled.  That 4th of July was a 'happening', a happening on top of the mountain in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, in 1945.  Many of the young men who served in  World War II  had returned alive, they had survived, and the older men and women, the children, the survivors of the Armenian Genocide who summered and worked the land on top of the mountain, would celebrate.  They would celebrate life, they would celebrate freedom.  To this end, they dug a deep hole into the mountain (yes, dug into the hardened earth), filled the pit with cement and into the cement placed a flag pole topped by a large brass ball; on the flagpole they raised an American flag large enough to be seen for miles around. Inscribed into that cement base was July 4, 1945.  The joy and cheers of the Armenian-Americans as they raised the flag on that July 4th could be heard along Monson Road, along Ridge Road, along Middle Road, down to Main Street, perhaps even in Hamden.  America, and the Armenians were here to stay.