Gregory Family 4th of July Reunion

“In 1916, my great grandparents, Warren and Sadie Gregory, bought property in the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz mountains. This land is still part of our family. We call it The Farm. Since around 1935, the extended Gregory family has gotten together to celebrate the 4th of July. It started as a way to teach the children of the family about the holiday. Over the course of nearly 100 years, what started as an educational exercise turned into a day of family gathering deeply rooted in ritual and tradition.  

I look forward to the 4th every year. It’s a day filled with a very specific set of traditions - the reading of the Declaration of Independence, the piñata, the baseball game, and plenty of delicious food (along with an insane amount of Coca-Cola). We never talk about what the 4th means to us, so it was delightful to hear my relatives say that they enjoy this day and all our rituals as much as I do. For a lot of us, it’s one of our favorite days of the year, but until now, we’ve never had a document of the tradition. Everyone expressed gratitude that we now have an official record, a sonic tribute to such a special day. It was an honor to record it.”

Natalie Gregory

Producer