From 8-year old Hilda’s diary:
This is the Fourth of July, and it is an important American holiday. Aunt Tillie read me the story of it before I went to bed last night, this is the story…
Once upon at time, the United States, but it wasn’t the United States then, the land belonged to England , but England was not kind to the people who lived here. She made them pay lots of taxes, and that means their money went to England, not all of it but a lot of it, and there was a very heavy tax on tea. It was very cruel to put such a big tax on tea, because everyone liked to have tea parties. Anyhow, one day a lot of men got dressed up in Indian costumes and they went abord a ship that was in Boston harbor and threw all the tea into the water. They called this, “The Boston Tea Party,” but no one could drink the sea water tea. I don’t know how that made any difference, or why they all dressed up as Indians? I do know that we celebrate because we don’t belong to England anymore.