4th of July

[Technosoul]

Well, today is the 4th of July and we are getting ready to watch all the unlawful fireworks tonight. They shoot the rocket flairs off the boats on the lake and so you get two for one, in the sky and reflected on the water.

As you know by now we celbrate the 4th of July in order of the Big Bang that created America and made it was it is today.

Oh say can you see, those exploding lights of red, white and blue, over the lake? I can.

The night time is the right time to celebrate the forth of July, and as darkness falls so do the beer cans, after the evening Bar-B-Que - which according to our local market that is what and why we celebrate the 4th, I guess it has something to do with the pioneering spirit, donno. Or perhaps it honors the cowboys and thier cows - unless you cook hot dogs, hey, who let the dogs out?

Yes, it is recommended you chain or keep your doggie in the house because when they hear those fireworks they go nuts and run amuck, perhaps never to return home. That goes for Rednecks also.

After midnight not only do the beer cans fall, but also the drinkers. Then comes the dawn and the party is over. Until we get drunk again on Christmas with that egg nog.

Anyway hope you all have a safe and sane 4th of July, and remember..... if you drink don't park - accidents cause people.

[Sonart]

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By way of nostalgia, I recall my days in Hawaii and how they celebrated the 4th of July. Actually, the 4th and New Years were pretty indistinguishable.

I lived in Honolulu for 15 years. O'ahu is about 30% ethnic Chinese, and they brought with them a grand tradition of fireworks, which has been gleefully taken up by the whole population. While the grand commercial fireworks displays are popular, they're secondary to home fireworks which - at least the last I heard in the 20 years since I left the islands - were quite legal (maybe Patrick can fill us in). Some families - certainly ethnic Chinese families - would erect 10ft high scaffolds in their driveways, with maybe a 6 ft or so wide crossbar on the top. From that crossbar they'd hang huge strings of firecrackers that hung almost to the ground, as many strings as they could hang from the crossbar. Literally thousand of firecrackers. Lighting these off produced a very loud and lengthy thunder of noise.

And of course, every individual in the city had their own firecrackers, rockets and small fireworks.

So, as the sun set, no matter where you were in Town, sporatic firecrackers could be heard all around you. As the evening wore on, the number of firecracker pops and whistles slowly began to increase. As midnight slowly approached, the sound began to build to a roar heard throughout the city, and as seconds to midnight began to tick down, the roar became one massive thunder, until midnight passed and the roar began to subside once again into the sporatic pops and whistles.

Kalakaua Avenue, down in Waikiki, was a microcosm of the entire city. The streets would be crowded with revelers, with packs and strings of firecrackers being thrown in increasing numbers as midnight approached, again building to a giant crescendo at midnight. The following morning, Kalakaua Avenue and residential streets throughout the city would be awash in red paper from the exloded crackers.

And it wasn't just the pets who had to be looked after. The Honolulu Zoo was in Kapiolani Park, right across the street from the east end of the Waikiki hotel district. The 4th and New Years were big nights for the zookeepers, since most of the animals had to be sedated in anticipation of the inevitable uproar.

Happy 4th of July to all my friends and worthy opponents at Volcanvo!

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[RickSp]

I have always been amazed by the prescience of John Adam when he looked to the future of the celebration of American independence:

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

I had a great 4th with family and friends watching the fireworks over New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty. I hope one and all had a wonderful day as well.

[Chris]

Loads of fireworks. Its hot as the gates of hell here though.

haha to the redneck comment. The rednecks here are still firing them off now.

[gallo]

I have always been amazed by the prescience of John Adam when he looked to the future of the celebration of American independence:

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

I too am amazed by John Adams prescience. But there is one problem. Adams wasn't talking about July 4, but July 2, the date when independence was declared. I just read that somewhere in the last week.

Interesting to note that on July 4, 1876, the news of the Battle of the Little Big Horn (June 25-26), wherein Lt Col G.A. Custer & 5 Troops of the 7th Cav Rgt (13 officers & 191 men) were wiped out, reached the east coast and hit the papers during the centennial celebration. In addition, there were many other casualties among the three other detachments of the 7th Cav.

I had a great 4th with family and friends watching the fireworks over New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty. I hope one and all had a wonderful day as well.

I also had a nice day. Hamburgers from the grill on grilled buns with a choice of anything and everything that you might desire on a burger. Unfortunately, my wife, who loves to work in her garden, seems to have planted something to which she is alergic. She has a reaction very much like poison ivy or poison oak.

[RickSp]

I too am amazed by John Adams prescience. But there is one problem. Adams wasn't talking about July 4, but July 2, the date when independence was declared. I just read that somewhere in the last week.

Yes he specifically made reference to the 2nd of July. Interesting how it is often easier to predict the distant future than what will happen during the current week.

[Technosoul]

As we looked at the lake on July 4th we saw a police boat bobbing around in the middle of the lake with it's birght blue lights on. I guess they got a law about no boating after dark. But they had one location for the offical display of fireworks, put on by the city with hired "experts" to set off the rocket flairs.

We do not have many police out here in the boondocks but they were out in force on the 4th, and so the days before actually had more fireworks then on the 4th. Wonder what Adams would think about the unlawfullness of celebrating the 4th of July with fireworks?

Someone gave cridit ot China for inventing gun power, which is used for fireworks. And they have big parades with dragons and other goodies. Sounds like a blast.

Things were loud here until about 2 oclock in the morning, then it got real quite, but in the warm air you could still smell smoke drifting around, I stayed up to keep my cats company. But one of my cats very intelligent, so intelligent she thinks she is a doggie.

I had a garage sale a few weeks ago and my neighbor got this electric flag form me for a buck, they put it up outside their house last night, it looked real cool. A electric flag made out of Christmas lights. Now I wish I had kept it.

I was the only flag I saw this weekend.

[5010]

We planned to celebrate USA's birthday by eating Mexican food and watching Chinese fireworks.

Storms blew in and so instead of watching fireworks, we stayed inside and played card games (spoons and BS) and a dice game called farkle.

[McAiden]

July 4th has become a celebration of youth and summer with food, drink, boating in get-togethers with family and friends. I love to hear the singing of patriotic songs because it reminds me of days gone by and to this day I still tear up. Unfortunately, the high school bands no longer turn up to put the parade participaters thru their paces and that is very sad because there is nothing more exciting than prancing girls and marching bands. Can't really see that any of it carries much support for our armed forces, and that is depressing. But, there is no thing like laying in soft grass under a starry sky watching how humanity has developed a thing called fireworks. In a book about Marco Polo it was said it was Polo himself who invented fireworks, meaning of course, an explosion when some ingredients meet with fire.