Soddy-Daisy celebrates Monday

Members of the Soddy-Daisy, left, and Mowbray fire departments' muster teams face off in a battle of the barrel in last year's Firemen's Muster, part of the Fourth of July festivities at Soddy Lake.

After 34 years, Soddy-Daisy’s Fourth of July celebration, scheduled Monday at the ballparks at Soddy Lake, holds a reliable trio of favorites: family fun, firemen’s muster and fireworks.

Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 942 is coordinating the all-ages activities centered at the walking track.

A car show will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Dayton Pike between the park and the lake, closing a section of the highway between Depot and Durham streets from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday. Chapter President Robert Cothran said 300 to 350 cars are expected for the cruise-in, and trophies will be awarded in several classes.

Vendors in the park will have foods ranging from hamburgers and hot dogs to beans and cornbread and chicken on a stick. Other booths will showcase arts-and-crafts vendors. Firefighters from area departments will compete in a muster starting at 10 a.m. Community bands will play until about 6 p.m.

“It’s just a lot of good, wholesome fun where people can bring their family out and have a good time and it not cost them a month’s wages,” Cothran said.

The fireworks display, scheduled at 9:45 p.m., will emanate from the pier on the south end of the lake, giving the crowds gathered at the ballparks and boaters on the water a spectacular show, said City Manager Hardie Stulce.

The cost of the display is underwritten by the city of Soddy-Daisy, which means the fire department no longer has to solicit donations, as it did when the Fourth of July celebration began in 1978, Stulce said.

“How much money we took up, that’s how big the show was,” he said.

The city’s volunteer firefighters are in charge of firing the shells. Free labor means more money to buy fireworks, Stulce said.

“We basically get twice the show for the same amount of money,” he said.