Adjacent towns may be pulling out all the stops for 4th of July fireworks, parades, fun fairs, and more, but here in Wellesley everyone has simply pulled out of town. Even the six Roche Bros. delivery trucks pictured stand idle in Linden Square, unneeded for now (and there’s one more out of the frame).

Some fun 4th of July facts: Massachusetts had five signers of the Declaration of Independence: John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, and Elbridge Gerry.

Wellesley was but a backwater in 1776, however Beth Hinchliffe, former editor of The Wellesley Townsman and Presidential speechwriter, notes in a short history on the Town’s website that…”in the 1630s, after negotiations with Indian Chiefs Nehoiden and Maugus (whose names are still seen in town today), the first nineteen hardy pioneers paid five pounds of currency and three pounds of corn for the land which would become Wellesley.”

They knew a good place when they saw one.