Every year for Independence Day, the residents of Mallory Drive come together to celebrate the holiday with a neighborhood picnic.

Families and friends fellowshipped over food and drinks while the kids rode around the neighborhood on their bikes and scooters on Tuesday afternoon.

The picnic was kicked off with a parade led by golf carts decorated in Independence Day regalia. The kids trailing and eventually lapping the golf carts also had their rides decorated with stars and stripes.

The annual picnic has seen multiple generations of Mallory Drive residents grow up in the neighborhood. More than 70 people were at this year’s celebration and there was enough food for everyone. Mounds of fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, a few vegetables and a variety of desserts filled several long picnic tables.

“We’ve been doing this for 30 years,” Bob Armstrong said. “Our kids, when they were little, did the same thing. We wanted to do something years ago as a neighborhood to honor God, honor our country and come together as a community to hang out and eat.”

Familiar faces that have since moved away from Selma even returned home to celebrate the holiday.

Cobb Bostic, a second-year law student at the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, was on vacation with his family in Gulf Shores for the week, but everyone decided to cut it short and return home to celebrate the holiday with their neighbors.

“I’ve grown up in this neighborhood my whole life,” Bostic said. “I’m 24, so I probably was here when I was in diapers. It’s always been a family thing that we grew up doing…we wanted to come back to be here and do the Selma Fourth of July with the neighborhood party and fireworks on Wednesday.”