MEHOOPANY TOWNSHIP-- Rain or shine, every year since 1948, folks in Mehoopany have held a get-together to celebrate Independence Day.
This time, they got the rain. But despite the downpours, firemen barbequed chickens, kids played games and a local church sold tacos.
Fire company trustee Bill Henning said, "We are committed, everything is ordered, it has to go off."
Volunteers kept putting down sawdust, trying to create a dry place to walk, but the drops just kept coming.
For the Forkston Grange, sno-cones were a tough sell. The had better luck with plastic ducks for a fundraiser.
Down in Luzerne County, it was a similar scene at Kirby Park.
Some families with umbrellas came out despite the weather. The Evans family won an appropriate prize at a booth, a goldfish they named Beardo.
Athena Evans said, "It was kind of fun but it was really wet."
Bob Dennis of Advanced Pyrotechnics was busy keeping the fireworks dry.
He said, "We are obviously in mud, and it's not the best circumstances, but we will do what we can and put the show on."
In Lackawanna County, folks wanting to get out of the rain filled the Cinemark Theater, watching movies.
Jeff Camiscioli of New Jersey brought his brood. "We were supposed to have a bar-b-q,we were supposed to do a little fishing at the lake, it was raining so hard we decided that was not going to happen."
Back in Wyoming County, while some sun would have been appreciated, folks we met said the holiday is really about patriotism and seeing friends.
"The community all comes together, and even though it is pouring down rain, we always have fun," says Genevieve Farr.