Patriot Games

It’s always a day of patriotic parades, night skies exploding with color and dogs reduced to quivering masses of jelly.

But Fourth of July festivities this year also promise parades on a shopping-cart scale, a radio-fireworks simulcast and, for those who just can’t wait, even a July 3 celebration!

All that, and battle reenactments too.

Here’s a sampling of Independence Day picks, from pancake breakfasts to pyrotechnic extravaganzas. For a complete listing, see Page 8. Consult your local Fire Department for information on other fireworks displays.

Then grab a blanket and picnic basket and watch the sparks fly.

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The British are coming--to Yorba Linda!

The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace celebrates Independence Day on Friday and Saturday with a Revolutionary War Living History Encampment. American and British “troops” will reenact the battle of Lexington and Concord, which began the colonies’ struggle for independence and ultimately resulted in the signing of the Declaration of Independence. (The British won the battle, however.)

The encampment will depict everyday life as it was more than 200 years ago, with demonstrations of cooking, clothing, woodworking, wool spinning and dancing. Most activities, including “Dress a Lady” and “Become a Soldier” demonstrations, include audience participation.

The celebration features free apple pie for the first 200 visitors each day, participation in the National Bell Ringing Ceremony from Independence Hall in Philadelphia--bring your own bells!--and viewing of the library’s rare 1830 copy of the Declaration of Independence. You can add your own John Hancock to a giant contemporary reproduction of the Declaration.

Both days begin with a Betsy Ross Flag Raising Ceremony with musket salute, and end with a flag-lowering ceremony.

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Just listen to those fireworks!

That’s right, the city of Dana Point is marking the Fourth of July with a “sky concert.” The fireworks display over Dana Point Harbor will be “choreographed” to music broadcast on Saddleback College-based radio station KSBR-FM (88.5). The fireworks will include more than 900 shells, among them four 12-inch shells, larger than those at any other fireworks displays in the county.

If you want to see the show, you can do so from anywhere in Dana Point Harbor or Capistrano Beach that has an ocean view. Then just flip on the car radio for the soundtrack. (Some spectators are taking advantage of boat trips organized by Dana Wharf Sports Fishing, $15 per person by reservation only; phone [714] 496-5794.)

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Background materials for Fourth of July festivities at Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort promise a 30-minute pyrotechnics extravaganza with “a spectacular ‘wall of gold,’ scores of red, blue, green and silver chrysanthemums that will bloom in the sky, a waterfall of fire and sweeping comets of color.” Alcohol consumption is discouraged, a boon for families.

The day starts with raft races in the lagoon and continues with a water-balloon toss, Hula-Hoop contests (hoops provided), volleyball and horseshoe tournaments and more than nine hours of live music. Barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers, as well as ice cream, will be sold, and the Back Bay Cafe will be open. Kayaks, windsurfers, electric boats, pedal boats, bodyboards, bicycles and roller-blades are available for rent.

Did we mention a roller-blade and bike parade at 1 p.m.?

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Huntington Beach hosts the granddaddy of the county’s Independence Day parades; in fact, organizers go so far as to call it “the oldest and grandest parade west of the Mississippi River.”

This year marks its 93rd; in 1903, John Philip Sousa, the composer of “Stars and Stripes Forever,” is said to have played in the city. More than 300,000 spectators are expected to line the three-mile parade route to see the floats and marching bands making their way up Main Street. (The procession begins at Acacia Street and ends at Clay Avenue.)

The theme of the 1997 parade is “Surf City Celebrates,” and actress Dawn Wells--who played Mary Ann on “Gilligan’s Island”--will be grand marshal. (In case you lost touch, Wells more recently has hosted a syndicated fishing show on television called “Dawn Wells’ Reel Adventures.”)

The day begins at 6:30 a.m. with a 5K Run/Walk and pancake breakfast at the corner of 17th and Main streets, and ends with a fireworks extravaganza over Huntington Beach High School.

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“Build a Float, Be a Float” is the theme of an Artists’ Float Parade and “Barbie Q” slated at Santora Arts Building in Santa Ana.

“The parks are crowded, everybody’s tired of going down to the beach, people just aren’t doing neighborhood things anymore,” explained Grace Marcus of Neutral Grounds, a coffee shop in the building. “The artists here want to build their own neighborhood. This is our block party.”

Noting that “everything about July 4 has gotten so big,” Marcus and other organizers are stipulating that the base of the floats be no bigger than that of a shopping cart.

“We’re hoping for a cross between a Doo-Dah and Disney parade,” she said. “People are decorating bicycles, radio-controlled cars . . . and there is one horse. It’s a one-horse parade!” (OK, one and a half: the horse is in foal.)

There will be live music, and barbecued hamburgers for sale, from 1 to 4 p.m. “You can do another parade before or after,” Marcus noted.

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Independence Day may have taken its first baby steps toward joining such hallowed American traditions as the first display of Christmas decorations in August: The city of Orange is sponsoring its second annual July 3 celebration at El Modena High School’s Fred Kelly Stadium.

Tonight’s itinerary includes game and food booths, classic cars, a performance by the Orange Community Chorus and fireworks. More than 7,000 Orange residents are expected to attend the event, a fund-raiser for a number of nonprofit organizations.