The town of Keene will have two Fourth of July weekends for 2023, since July 4 falls in the middle of the week. Also, unlike Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, which hosted fireworks on the actual day, this year Keene is holding off on the fireworks until this Saturday, July 8, when the historic first annual Keene Community Day will take off with a bang.

I admit that there’s no telling whether Keene Community Day will become an annual event, although that seems like a good thing, and the bang will come at the end of the celebration, not the beginning, with fireworks scheduled for 9:45 p.m. Keene Community Day is to begin at 4:30 p.m. with games and races. Here is the schedule:

– 4:30-7 p.m., games and races

– 5-8 p.m., barbecue dinner provided by the Ausable Club, payment required

– 6 p.m., pie-judging contest

– 5:30-9:30 p.m., Ploughman’s Lunch Band

– 9:45 p.m., fireworks by the Ausable Club

I don’t know when or where pie contest participants will be required to submit their pies. I should have researched that before writing this column.

Of course, it doesn’t pertain to me, since I will always refuse to enter any pie-baking contest, not because I’m noncompetitive by nature, but because I’m a bad sport. Should I, by some bizarre twist of fate, not win the contest, I would just fall apart. I would claim it was rigged. I would be heard to hint darkly that the pie-tasters were related by blood to the winner, or perhaps connected in some nefarious way to the pie-contest judge. I might subsequently devote a whole Martha Sez column to the scandal, insisting that I myself was the true winner.

Then again, as is probable, I might truly win, in which case I would simper around, all sweet and humble. “It must have been a very difficult decision,” I would say, looking down and twisting my apron as if embarrassed by all the attention.

Still, I just can’t afford to take the chance. I’ll leave the field open for others.

There has been a fair amount of controversy about the fireworks. Many people were disappointed to learn that, for the first time in many years, the Ausable Club will not be providing its magnificent display on its heartbreakingly beautiful golf course, the sounds of the “bombs bursting in air” reverberating off the mountains.

Sure, Keene’s Marcy Field must also be acknowledged to be beautiful. Everybody loves Marcy Field. But it can’t be compared to the rolling green hills of the club’s golf course.

The golf course is in a whole different category, in the same way that a Royal Pudding pie with a store-bought crust may be OK but not to be compared with a chocolate pie made from scratch by your granny, or by someone’s granny who knows how to cook. And add to that the fact that most people don’t often have the opportunity to visit the Ausable Club golf course, while they can drive past Marcy Field any day of the week, making it more commonplace in their eyes.

I don’t know the official reason or reasons for the club’s decision to refrain from hosting the fireworks this year, but perhaps the annual celebration fell victim to its own popularity. Everybody and his brother was there, as well as many people from out of town. Parking was difficult and traffic was wild and congested.

For all that, it has been a beautiful tradition, and one that will be remembered and missed. It used to be that once the Ausable Club had staged its annual Independence Day fireworks display, everyone felt that summer had begun.

The Ausable Club and the town have a long history of coexistence. During the late 19th century, Beede’s Hotel in St. Huberts, New York, was a popular wilderness camp destination for wealthy sportsmen. In 1905, the Adirondack Mountain Reserve founded the Ausable Club on the site where the old Beede Hotel once stood. Those were the days of the great Adirondack hotels, where “summer people” typically stayed a month or two at a time.

I didn’t mean to compare Marcy Field to an inferior baked good. Sorry. I got carried away.

Have a good week.

(Martha Allen lives in Keene Valley. She has been writing for the Lake Placid News for more than 20 years.)