07-08-2017, 12:06 PM
(07-06-2017, 12:54 PM)BengalHawk62 Wrote: This has been brewing for a few years, but I realized yesterday that Independence day is not my favorite U.S. Holiday. I feel very un-American so I have been faking it for years, but I will out myself.
1) It's on a specific date and not a Monday. So 3 out of 7 years it's in the middle of the week. All Fed/Bank holidays should be on Mondays or Fridays - easy boon to the economy as well.
July 4th on a Tuesday? - I stare at the walls and do laundry.
July 4th on a Monday? - I take a 3 day weekend somewhere: buy airfare, stay in hotels, eat in restaurants.
2) Fireworks ain't all that. Never truly got the appeal. If I'm outside on a muggy night where it's 85 degrees at 9pm and I am being eaten alive by mosquitoes...sure...better to watch fireworks than not. But I'd rather be inside saying "screw that".
3) Fireworks start late because...well...it's got to be dark. That means it totally screws doing anything else that night.
4) Kids who are used to being sound asleep by 9:30 don't get to bed until 11pm. Self explanatory for any parent. This is a nightmare on the 4th and the next morning.
5) The next morning is a workday.
6) Sparklers suck. At least when I was a kid you could buy an illegal cherry bomb and your crazy uncle would blow stuff up. I was shooting bottle rockets at cars a few streets away from behind a tree when I was a teenager. Now you can get sparklers and roman candles and things that bounce.
7) The 4th of July is always hot. I don't like the outdoors when it's hot. I want to be in a pool or on a boat. I do not want to be walking around town or putting a lawn chair down for a band concert or waiting for fireworks.
8) No fun for pet owners. Heard the last distant firework go off at 3:00am.
On the positive side, I do enjoy typical 4th of July food and grilling out. I like the patriotism. I just wish the founders had signed the Declaration of Independence on a Monday or a Friday in October.
Sir, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find Rev. Billy C Wirz song "Get Off My Lawn" pronto.
Wait, here you go. There's a bit of an intro but trust me, it is worth the wait... Listen, rinse repeat:
JOHN ROBERTS: From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly so that you will come to know the value of justice... I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either.
